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PRIMITIVE  TRAITS 

. 

IN  RELIGIOUS  REVIVALS 


C.^T' 


uos 

MENTAL   AND   SOCIAL   EVOLUTION 


BY 
FREDERICK   MORGAN  ,  DAVENPORT 

V*- 

PROFESSOR   IN   POLITICAL   SCIENCE  AT   HAMILTON   COLLEGE 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON  :  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 
1906 

jlll  rigbtt  reserved 


1908 


COPYRIGHT,  1905, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  April,  1905. 
Reprinted  October,  1906. 


••*•    «*• 


XorfoooB 

J.  i.  Ctwhing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  <fc  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mans.,  U.S.A..  I 


_B  V 
3130 


DEDICATION 

'IPO  my  New  England  Father  and  Mother,  whose  simple 
lives  of  industry  and  parental  sacrifice  and  trust  in 
the  Invisible  have  made  possible  to  me  a  broader  train- 
ing than  theirs,  but  not  a  deeper  practical  sense  or  truer 
experience  of  faith  and  love,  this  volume  is  affectionately 
dedicated. 


GUIDE-POSTS   OF   INVESTIGATION 

"  THOUGH  existing  religious  ideas  and  institutions  have  an 
average  adaptation  to  the  characters  of  the  people  who  live 
under  them,  yet,  as  these  characters  are  ever  changing,  the 
adaptation  is  ever  becoming  imperfect,  and  the  ideas  and 
institutions  need  remodeling  with  a  frequency  proportionate 
to  the  rapidity  of  the  change.1' 

—  HERBERT  SPENCER,  "First  Principles,"  p.  122. 

"All  the  histories  of  the  human  race  have  as  yet  been 
external  and  physical.  .  .  .  Men  do  not  even  know  what 
the  mind  is,  what  are  its  constituent  powers,  what  are  those 
faculties  which  produce  the  endless  results  of  human  experi- 
ence. .  .  .  When  each  of  the  constituent  powers  of  the 
human  mind  shall  have  been  scientifically  ascertained,  its 
laws,  its  combinations,  its  modifications  registered,  then  a 
new  era  will  dawn  upon  the  science  of  history." 

—  HENRY  WARD  BEECHER,  in  1857,  introducing  Conant's 

narrative  of  the  American  revival  of  that  year. 

"Religion  must  indeed  be  a  thing  of  the  heart;  but  in 
order  to  elevate  it  from  the  region  of  subjective  caprice  and 
waywardness,  and  to  distinguish  between  that  which  is  true 
and  false  in  religion,  we  must  appeal  to  an  objective  standard. 
That  which  enters  the  heart  must  first  be  discerned  by  the 
intelligence  to  be  true.  It  must  be  seen  as  having  in  its  own 
nature  a  right  to  dominate  feeling  and  as  constituting  the 
principle  by  which  feeling  must  be  judged." 

—  PRINCIPAL  JOHN  CAIRD,  "  Introduction  to  the  Philosophy 
of  Religion,"  p.  174. 

"  Quench  not  the  Spirit,  despise  not  prophesyings,  but  prove 
all  things,  hold  fast  that  which  is  good.1' 

—  THE  APOSTLE   PAUL,  i  Thessalonians,  v.  19  f.      (Many 

ancient  authorities  insert  the  conjunction.) 


PREFACE 

I  HAVE  endeavored  to  present  a  sociological  in- 
terpretation of  religious  revivals,  a  task  which,  so 
far  as  I  know,  has  not  been  seriously  attempted 
hitherto.  I  have  aimed  at  a  true  scientific  de- 
scription, beginning  with  a  provisional  discrimi- 
nation of  the  whole  subject,  continuing  with  an 
inductive  investigation  of  particulars,  and  conclud- 
ing with  so  much  of  explanation  and  practical 
suggestion  as  appears  to  flow  naturally  from  the 
concrete  material.  It  is  an  interpretation  in  terms 
of  law  and  personality,  a  simple  attempt  to  illus- 
trate the  profound  proposition  of  Harnack  that 
religion  has  its  secrets,  but  no  mysteries.  I  have 
used  the  term  "  revival "  not  in  its  broad  Lutheran 
or  Puritan  sense,  but  in  the  narrower  signification, 
which  has  grown  up  in  recent  centuries,  of  a 
particular  method  and  a  particular  experience. 

The  book  is  not  without  an  a  priori  vein.  The 
doctrine  of  mental  and  social  evolution  is  assumed 
throughout.  The  world  of  living  men  is  regarded 
as  in  process  of  development  from  the  animal  ami 


Vlll  PREFACE 

the  primitive  to  the  rational  and  the  spiritual. 
There  is  also  a  guasi-a.ssumption,  which  I  think 
is  thoroughly  justified,  however,  by  the  evidence, 
that  the  typical  religious  revival  is  characterized 
by  the  dominance  of  emotion  in  mass  and  in  con- 
trol. I  have  been  surprised  at  the  manner  in 
which  the  facts  and  principles  of  psychology  have 
everywhere  come  to  the  front  as  I  have  worked 
on.  I  ought  not  to  have  been  surprised,  for  no 
worthy  investigation  in  sociology  ever  was  at- 
tempted which  did  not  sink  its  roots  deep  into 
the  mental  life.  I  hope  the  book  does  not  lack 
insight  into  any  value  which  certain  revivals  of 
the  past  have  possessed  for  society,  or  apprecia- 
tion of  the  great  human  spirits  who  have  fre- 
quently wrought  well  with  what  has  become  a 
seriously  defective  religious  method.  I  hope  that 
criticism  has  not  exorcised  sympathy. 

I  have  undertaken  not  simply  to  discriminate- 
spurious  and  genuine  revivals,  but  to  show  that 
in  genuine  revivals  themselves  there  are  primitive 
traits  which  need  elimination  or  modification  in 
the  interest  of  religious  and  social  progress.  The 
problem  is  not  to  quench  or  diminish  spontaneous 
emotion,  but  to  put  it  under  full  rational  control. 
This  book  is  not  written  with  the  vain  thought  of 


PREFACE  IX 

attempting  to  beat  back  any  incoming  tide  of  vital 
faith  by  so  much  as  the  obstructive  interposition 
of  a  single  human  opinion.  Let  some  stubborn 
and  hapless  Cnut  of  science  or  theology  essay  that 
unworthy  and  fruitless  labor !  But  it  is  written 
to  contribute,  if  possible,  to  the  better  ordering  of 
religious  method,  that  the  tide,  if  it  comes,  may  be 
rationally  guided  into  reservoirs  and  channels  and 
ditches,  and  may  irrigate  a  thirsty  land  and  not 
overwhelm  it,  and  receding,  leave  far  too  much  of 
wreck  behind.  Primarily,  it  has  been  my  task  to 
segregate  the  primitive  and  baser  elements  in  the 
revival.  But  I  have  occasionally  been  led  afield 
by  a  genuine  interest  in  the  subject  as  a  whole, 
and  by  a  desire  to  produce  a  work  which  would  be 
not  merely  and  adversely  critical,  but  constructive 
in  its  tendency. 

I  have  made  honest  effort  in  these  pages  to 
give  exact  credit  to  whom  credit  is  due.  But  I 
ought  to  mention  especially  here  the  helpfulness 
of  my  honored  preceptor,  Professor  Franklin  H. 
Giddings,  whose  splendid  constructive  thinking  in 
the  "  Inductive  Sociology  "  has  avowedly  furnished 
important  principles  for  the  prosecution  of  this 
study. 

When  I  confronted   Professor   Livingston  Far- 


X  PREFACE 

rand  of  the  department  of  Ethnology  at  Columbia 
with  the  belief  for  which  at  the  time  I  had  scant 
evidence,  that  nervous  instability  must  have  been 
a  normal  characteristic  of  primitive  man,  it  was 
he  who  called  my  attention  to  the  facts  of  recent 
investigation  among  the  northern  Siberian  tribes, 
the  North  American  Indians,  and  elsewhere. 

This  book  is  the  expansion  of  a  dissertation, 
which  was  originally  submitted  in  partial  fulfil- 
ment of  the  requirements  for  the  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Philosophy  in  the  faculty  of  Political  Science 
at  Columbia  University. 

FREDERICK   MORGAN   DAVENPORT. 

HAMILTON  COLLEGE, 
CLINTON,  N.Y.,  1905. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

MM 

THE  REVIVAL  ESSENTIALLY  A  FORM  OF  IMPULSIVE  SOCIAL 

ACTION i 

CHAPTER  II 
THE  MIND  OF  PRIMITIVE  MAN it 

CHAPTER  III 
MENTAL  TRAITS  OF  A  PSYCHOLOGICAL  "CROWD"        .       .      35 

CHAPTER  IV 
THE  GHOST-DANCE  AMONG  THE  NORTH  AMERICAN  INDIANS      32 

CHAPTER  V 

THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  AMERICAN  NEGRO    ...      45 
/ 

CHAPTER  VI 

THE  SCOTCH-IRISH  REVIVAL  IN  KENTUCKY  IN  1800   .        .      60 
CHAPTER  VII 

V 

THE  SCOTOT-IRISH  REVIVAL  IN  ULSTER  IN  1859         .        .      87 


Xll  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   VIII 

PAOB 

THE  NEW  ENGLAND  AWAKENING  ORIGINATING  WITH  JONA- 
THAN EDWARDS 94 

CHAPTER  IX 

JOHN  WESLEY  AND  ENGLISH  SOCIAL  EVOLUTION  IN  THE 

EIGHTEENTH  CENTURY 133 

CHAPTER  X 

THE  TRANSITION  PERIOD  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  —  NET- 

TLETON,   FlNNEY  AND   MOODY l8o 

CHAPTER  XI 
A  NATURAL  EXPLANATION  OF  CERTAIN  REVIVAL  PHENOMENA    216 

CHAPTER  XII 
CONVERSION  BY  SUGGESTION         .        .        .        ...        .    246 

CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  PASSIONAL  AND  THE  RATIONAL  IN  RELIGION      .        .    258 

CHAPTER  XIV 

AN   APPLICATION   TO   THE   UNITED   STATES    AND   OTHER 

CONCLUSIONS 282 

CHAPTER  XV 
THE  NEW  EVANGELISM 308 


PRIMITIVE   TRAITS 
IN    RELIGIOUS   REVIVALS 


PRIMITIVE  TRAITS  IN  RELIGIOUS 
REVIVALS 

*&%?*$* 

CHAPTER   I 


THE   REVIVAL    ESSENTIALLY    A    FORM    OF    IMPULSIVE 
SOCIAL   ACTION 

RELIGIOUS  movements  of  magnitude  have  often 
assumed  a  mode  which  sociologists  call  sympa- 
thetic likemindedness.  It  is  a  term  which  perhaps 
deserves  or  requires  a  further  word  of  description. 
Likeminded  people  are  those  whose  mental  and 
nervous  organizations  respond  in  like  ways  to  the  / 
same  stimuli.!  They  might  conceivably  respond 
unconsciously  to  the  same  stimuli,  as  animals  do. 
We  should  then  call  them  instinctively  likeminded. 
,  But  it  is  at  least  doubtful  whether  there  are  people 
Ii*so  low  in  the  scale  of  mental  development  that 
they  are  not  to  some  extent  conscious  of  feeling, 
thinking  and  acting  together.  When  we  rise  a 
)  step  higher,  however,  we  come  upon  a  phenome- 
non which  has  played  a  great  part  in  social,  politi- 
cal and  religious  movements  among  all  races  of 
men.  It  hr.s  played  a  conscious  part,  though 
rational  consciousness  has  by  no  means  always 
been  the  controlling  factor.  This  phenomenon 
has  been  called  sympathetic  likemindedness,1  and 

1  Giddings,  "Inductive  Sociology,"  p.  136  f. 


2         PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

the  predominant  mental  characteristics  of  a  popu- 
lation under  its  influence  are  suggestibility,  imita- 
tiveness,  imagination  and  emotion.  These  are 
exceedingly  primitive  and  probably  universal  men- 
tal traits.  Just  as  every  human  being  tends  to  re- 
spond to  a  sen satiori* by  'some -reflex  movement,  so 
every  human  being  tends  tx>  respond  to  an  idea 
implanted  in  his  consciousness.  He  is  suggestible. 
He  is  imitative.  He  is  also  more  or  less  a  crea- 
ture of  imagination  and  emotion.  In  proportion 
as  these  tendencies  in  a  population  are  held  in 
check,  we  have  a  population  under  control.  We 
have  deliberation  and  public  opinion  and  social 
evolution  rather  than  revolution. 

But  whatever  else  may  be  said  of  sympathetically 
likeminded  people,  —  and  much  that  is  good  may 
be  said  of  them,  —  they  are  not  likely  to  have  their 
primitive  and  instinctive  nervous  tendencies  and 
mental  traits  under  the  governance  of  the  higher 
inhibitory  centres.  With  them,  suggestion  and  imi- 
tation, imagination  and  emotion,  pass  swiftly,  im- 
pulsively and  often  resistlessly  into  the  united 
action  of  the  lynching  mob,  the  super-emotional 
revival  or  the  political  revolution. 

Normally,  subjective  and  sympathetic  likemind- 
edness  manifests  itself  in  forms  of  objective  and 
impulsive  social  action.  And  in  our  time  these 
peculiar  social  movements  have  been  studied  and 
have  been  found  to  conform  to  law.1  There  is  the 
law  of  origin,  that  impulsive  social  action  origi- 

^_J  Giddings,  "Elements  of  Sociology,"  p.  136. 


REVIVALS   A   FORM   OF   IMPULSIVE   SOCIAL  ACTION      3 

nates  among  people  who  have  least  inhibitory  con- 
trol. This  does  not  mean  that  the  thinking  out 
of  the  plan  of  action  has  its  origin  with  this  class 
of  the  community,  but  it  does  mean  that  the  first 
movement  towards  carrying  out  the  plan  is  likely  to 
be  made  by  the  people  who  are  least  self-controlled. 
John  Brown  and  Harper's  Ferry  preceded  Grant 
and  Vicksburg.  An  ill-balanced  young  lawyer  led 
the  Paris  mob  to  the  storming  of  the  Bastile.  Over 
and  over  again  in  the  pages  that  follow  we  shall  see 
the  nervously  unstable,  the  suggestible,  the  inex- 
perienced, affected  by  the  highly  emotional  revival 
earlier  than  the  dignified  and  intelligent  people 
of  judgment  and  standing.  This  law  is  strikingly 
illustrated  in  that  remarkable  sympathetic  social 
movement  of  the  middle  ages,  the  Crusades.  We 
are  in  the  habit  of  thinking  of  the  Crusades  as  a 
series  of  organized  and  orderly  military  expeditions 
led  by  princes  of  Christian  blood  to  wrest  the  Holy 
Land  from  the  infidel  —  and  so  in  fact  they  were 
before  the  Crusades  were  done.  But  first  th'ere 
were  three  great  unorganized  movements.  By  the, 
middle  of  the  eleventh  century  Jerusalem  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  Seliukian  Turks,  who  cruelly 
harassed  Christian  pilgrims  and  heaped  insult 
upon  their  sacred  shrines.  Peter  the  Hermit,  on 
his  return  from  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,  at  the 
instance  of  Pope  Urban  II,  travelled  widely  and 
depicted  the  calamity  vividly  to  the  imagination 
of  Christendom.  In  1095  a  great  council  of  the 
Church  resolved  upon  the  deliverance  of  the  Holy 


4        PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

Sepulchre.  No  movement  of  armed  forces  was 
organized  until  two  years  later  under  Godfrey  of 
Bouillon.  But  in  1096  Walter  the  Penniless,  the 
ringleader  of  a  mob  of  twenty  thousand  men,  the 
dregs  of  humanity,  passed  through  Germany, 
Hungary  and  into  Bulgaria,  devastating  the 
country  through  which  they  passed  with  rob- 
bery and  murder.  Finally,  on  the  verge  of  star- 
vation, they  stormed  Belgrave,  were  crushed,  and 
only  the  shattered  remnants  of  a  disorderly  host 
found  its  way  to  Constantinople.  Then  Peter 
the  Hermit  led  forty  thousand  men,  women  and 
children.  In  attempting  to  cross  the  Bosphorus 
they  were  routed  and  decimated.  Later  in  the 
same  year  a  horde  of  fifteen  thousand  lawless 
vagabonds  under  Gottschalk,  a  German  priest, 
entered  upon  their  sacred  mission  by  massacring 
all  Jews  who  unhappily  crossed  their  path.  But 
the  most  astounding  outburst  was  that  which  pre- 
ceded the  fifth  organized  Crusade.  In  1212  a 
great  host  of  children,  boys  and  girls,  three  armies 
of  them, — one  from  France  and  two  from  Germany, 
—  started  on  the  pious  pilgrimage.  Some  of  these 
little  ones  returned  to  their  homes,  but  it  is  prob- 
able that  most  of  them  perished  of  starvation  or 
disease  or  were  sold  into  slavery.  .  .  .  The  initial 
step  in  sympathetic  social  action  is  taken  by  those 
who  have  least  inhibitory  control  over  the  nervous 
and  mental  processes. 

And  the  second  law  is  the  law  of  spread.     Im- 
pulsive  social  action  tends,  through  imitation,  to 


REVIVALS   A   FORM   OF   IMPULSIVE   SOCIAL   ACTION     5 

extend  and  intensify  in  geometrical  progression.1 
One  individual  influences  a  second,  the  two  in- 
fluence four,  and  like  a  stone  thrown  into  a  lake 
of  still  water,  the  single  centre  of  impulse  moves 
on  in  ever  widening  circles  of  suggestion  and 
imitation,  emotional  action  and  reaction.  This 
law  is  illustrated  in  the  remarkable  growth  of 
early  Christianity.  On  the  day  of  Pentecost  there 
were  apparently  about  six  hundred  Christians  con- 
fined to  Palestine.  At  the  accession  of  Constantine 
early  in  the  fourth  century,  it  is  estimated  that 
there  were  about  ten  millions  of  Christians,  or  one- 
tenth  of  the  empire's  population.  Gibbon  places 
the  figure  at  five  millions,  and  others  as  high  as 
twenty  millions.  Ten  millions  is  probably  ap- 
proximately correct.  If  there  had  been  a  great 
number  less  than  this,  Constantine  would  hardly 
have  chosen  the  Christians  as  the  support  of  his 
empire.  If  there  had  been  twenty  or  twenty-five 
millions,  the  persecution  of  Diocletian  would  no 
doubt  have  been  impossible.  A  feeble  six  hundred 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  a  powerful  ten  millions  in 
the  days  of  Constantino  !  Now  one  reason  for  the 
great  spread  of  early  Christianity  growing  out  of 
the  social  conditions  of  the  time,  is  often  left  out  of 
account.  There  were  great  families  of  slaves,  some- 
times two  or  three  hundred  in  a  family.  Christian- 
ity entered  the  house  through  a  slave  and  ran  by 
suggestion  and  imitation  through  the  whole  slave 
body.  There  were  also  large  numbers  of  clubs 

1  Giddings,  "  Elements  of  Sociology,"  p.  139. 


6         PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

and  fraternities  of  all  kinds  in  the  early  empire  to 
whom  the  doctrine  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  was 
exceedingly  congenial  And  the  cardinal  precepts 
of  the  new  religion  swept  through  these  organiza- 
tions like  a  flame.1 

The  great  wave  of  religious  interest  which  passed 
over  the  United  States  in  1857  furnishes  another 
clear  exemplification  of  this  law.  During  the 
summer  there  had  occurred  many  business  dis- 
turbances which  slowly  approached  a  climax  of 
financial  disaster.  And  finally  on  a  single  day, 
between  9  A.M.  and  4  P.M.,  scores  of  banks  and 
thousands  of  families  were  ruined.  Wall  Street 
collapsed,  and  the  tremendous  force  of  the  almost 
unparalleled  financial  calamity  was  felt  throughout 
the  country.  A  few  days  later  a  solitary  man,  one 
Jeremiah  C.  Lanphier,  a  lay  missionary  in  the 
employ  of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church  in  Fulton 
Street,  New  York  City,  became  impressed  with  the 
idea  that  an  hour  of  prayer,  from  twelve  to  one 
o'clock,  would  be  beneficial  to  business  men.  He 
instituted  it,  and  advertised  it  somewhat,  but  sat 
out  the  first  half  of  the  first  meeting  alone.2  At 
the  end  of  the  hour  there  were  six  present.  Lan- 
phier kept  a  diary  and  a  record  of  the  increase. 
At  the  second  meeting  there  were  twenty,  at  the 
third  forty  and  at  the  fourth  one  hundred,  and 

1  I  am  indebted  to  the  Church  History  lectures  of  my  former 
preceptor,  Professor  A.  C.  McGiffert,  for  this  illustration. 

2  Cf.  Prime,  "  The  Power  of  Prayer,"  an  account  of  the  revival 
of  1857. 


REVIVALS   A    FORM    OF    IMPULSIVE   SOCIAL    ACTION     / 

then  the  numbers  increased  so  rapidly  that  it  was 
impossible  to  accommodate  the  people  in  one  room. 
Overflow  meetings  were  held  in  many  churches 
in  New  York  and  Brooklyn,  and  great  crowds 
went  away  unable  to  get  into  any  of  them.  Men 
were  organized  by  occupations,  firemen  for  example, 
with  an  attendance  of  two  thousand.  Business 
men  thronged  the  churches,  all  the  means  of  ac- 
cess were  blocked  before  the  hour  of  prayer 
commenced  and  hundreds  stood  in  the  street 
during  the  hour.  Soon  the  revival  spread  to  Jersey 
City,  Hoboken,  Paterson  and,  a  few  days  later,  to 
Philadelphia,  and  ran  rapidly  through  that  city ; 
then  through  New  England  to  Boston,  and  up  the 
Hudson  to  Albany,  Troy,  Schenectady,  Roches- 
ter, Buffalo;  and  to  Baltimore,  Richmond,  Charles- 
ton, Savannah,  Mobile,  New  Orleans,  Vicksburg, 
Memphis,  St.  Louis,  Cincinnati,  Pittsburgh,  Chi- 
cago and  other  cities  throughout  the  nation.  The 
movement  was  resistless  and  cumulative,  charac- 
terized by  strong  emotion  but  not  by  wild  excite- 
ment. 

And  the  third  law  of  impulsive  social  action  is 
the  law  of  restraint.  Sympathetic  popular  move- 
ments tend  to  spend  themselves  with  abandon,  and 
are  held  in  check  only  if  there  are  a  considerable 
number  of  individuals  scattered  through  the  popu- 
lation who  are  trained  in  the  habit  of  control,  who 
are  accustomed  to  subordinate  feeling  to  rational 
considerations  and  who  act  as  bulwarks  against 
the  advance  of  the  overwhelming  tide  of  imitation 


8         PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

and  emotion.1  We  shall  see  in  the  pages  that 
follow  that  in  the  more  primitive  religious  revivals 
there  is  little  or  no  restraint  until  the  wave  has 
spent  its  fury,  while  in  others,  calmer  leadership 
within  and  critical  judgment  from  without  com- 
bine to  hold  in  leash  the  natural  excesses  of  the 
movement. 

We  must  notice,  also,  that  there  appear  to  be 
certain  physical  and  mental  conditions  which  pre- 
dispose to  emotionalism.  For  example,  sudden 
changes  of  climate  from  summer  to  winter,  com- 
bined with  monotony  of  topography,  seem  to  be  a 
factor  in  fixing  the  type  of  mind  of  the  inhabitant 
of  the  Russian  steppe.2  Physical  surrounding  has 
probably  had  its  influence  in  establishing  among 
the  people  of  the  great  western  plains  in  America 
a  more  radical  and  impulsive  religious  and  political 
habit  than  that  which  characterizes  the  New  Eng- 
lander.  There  are  other  predisposing  conditions 
of  which  we  may  speakt  with  more  confidence. 
Instinctive  fear,  when  a  population  is  under  the 
spell  of  it,  arouses  great  volumes  of  imagination 
and  emotion,  and  powerfully  induces  sympathetic 
movements.  We  shall  find,  for  example,  that  cer- 
tain distinctive  features  of  the  Edwards  revival  in 
the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  New 
England,  and  of  the  Kentucky  revival  of  1800,  are 
explained  by  the  environment  of  fear  —  fear  of 
starvation,  of  wild  beasts  and  savages  —  in  which 

1  Cf.  Giddings,  "  Democracy  and  Empire,"  p.  56. 

2  Giddings,  "  Inductive  Sociology,"  p.  140  f. 


REVIVALS  A   FORM   OF   IMPULSIVE   SOCIAL   ACTION     9 

the  colonists  had  lived,  in  New  England  for  a 
century,  in  Kentucky  for  a  shorter  period. 

Difficulty  of  communication  and  a  great  amount 
of  ignorance  in  a  population  predispose  to  emo- 
tional movements.  The  three  millions  of  white 
people  in  the  southern  mountains  from  Virginia 
to  northern  Alabama  are  known  chiefly  for  their 
moonshine  stills,  their  feuds,  their  murders,  their 
excitable  religious  temperament  and  their  illiteracy. 
And  the  last  is  to  a  great  degree  the  cause  of  the 
others.  They  live  in  one  of  the  great  land-locked 
areas  of  the  globe,  comparable  with  the  Basque 
country  of  the  Pyrenees.  They  were  early  shut 
off  from  the  remainder  of  the  southern  people, 
socially  by  an  aversion  to  the  institution  of  slavery, 
and  economically  by  the  fact  that  their  mountain 
holdings  furnished  no  such  resources  of  wealth  as 
the  rich  plantations  of  their  neighbors  in  the  low 
lands  in  the  old  slave  days.  And  educational  oppor- 
tunities throughout  their  whole  history  have  been 
very  meagre  and  are  exceedingly  meagre  to-day. 
It  is  not  at  all  likely  that  they  are  lacking  in  capa- 
city, for  their  Scotch-Irish  and  English  ancestors 
have  been  a  great  element  of  national  strength. 
But  they  have  been  shut  in  by  poverty  and  the 
mountains,  their  horizon  has  been  limited  by  igno- 
rance, and  they  have  been  at  the  mercy  of  primi- 
tive passion  and  primitive  superstition. 

And  finally  we  must  bear  in  mind  constantly  as 
we  proceed  that  the  effect  of  a  sympathetic  reli- 
gious movement  is  greatly  increased  by  the  mass- 


IO      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

ing  of  men  and  women  in  a  psychological  "crowd," 
a  camp-meeting  for  instance.  This  is  a  purely 
social  condition  and  has  such  important  conse- 
quences that  we  shall  return  to  the  subject  farther 
on.  It  will  be  sufficient  here  to  remark  that  the 
natural  result  of  the  assembling  of  men  in  crowds, 
especially  when  skilful  speakers  engage  their 
attention  and  play  upon  the  chords  of  imagination 
and  emotion,  seems  to  be  the  weakening  of  the 
power  of  inhibition  in  each  individual,  and  the 
giving  of  free  rein  to  feeling  and  imitation.  And 
when  under  these  circumstances  a  powerful  emo- 
tion, especially  that  of  fear,  is  aroused  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  assembly,  all  the  phenomena  of 
suggestion  —  even  the  highly  reflex  phenomena 
of  hypnotic  suggestion  so  called  —  are  likely  to 
develop.  This  will  be  most  in  evidence  among 
primitive,  superstitious  and  unlettered  people,  of 
course,  for  civilization  shows  itself  in  nothing  more 
clearly  than  in  the  growing  capacity  for  individual 
self-control,  but  they  will  also  appear  in  the  rela- 
tively higher  stages  of  culture  and  experience  if 
the  combination  of  conditions,  physical,  mental 
and  social,  is  strong  enough  to  develop  them.  In 
fact  there  is  no  population,  there  are  comparatively 
few  individuals  in  any  population,  who  cannot  be 
swept  from  the  moorings  of  reason  and  balanced 
judgment  if  brought  under  the  mysterious  and 
potent  influence  of  the  psychological  "crowd." 


CHAPTER   II 

THE    MIND    OF    PRIMITIVE    MAN 

THE  term  "  primitive  "  as  applied  to  man  is  often 
used  in  two  senses.  It  sometimes  occurs  as  a 
synonym  for  aboriginal  humans,  and  sometimes 
for  contemporary  savages.  The  mental  capacity 
and  characteristics  of  savages  we  know  a  good 
deal  about  from  direct  research  among  existing 
tribes.  The  mental  capacity  and  characteristics 
of  aboriginal  peoples  we  know  very  little  about 
except  from  a  priori  reasoning.  It  certainly  would 
be  unsafe  to  make  too  wide  inferences  of  original 
human  traits  from  what  we  know  of  savage  traits 
and  count  upon  these  inferences  as  absolutely  ac- 
curate, for  existing  savages  have  unnumbered  thou- 
sands of  years  of  inheritance  stretching  back  of 
them,  and  there  has  probably  been  some  mental 
development  in  their  history,  although  this  devel- 
opment has  been  in  the  main  arrested. 

There  are  not  wanting  marked  indications  that 
the  mind  of  the  animal  no  less  than  its  physical 
organization  is  the  result  of  a  process  of  evolution. 
Certainly  it  is  true  that  in  all*animal  life  up  to  man, 
the  development  of  intelligence  and  the  develop- 
ment of  the  nervous  system  proceed  together. 
There  has  been  a  slow  and  steady  evolution  of 


12       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

the  regulating  centres  —  first  the  uniform  spinal 
cord  is  supreme,  then  the  medulla  and  the  cord, 
then  the  basal  ganglia,  then  the  cerebrum.1  And 
the  appearance  of  these  progressively  higher  centres 
has  always  marked  successive  stages  in  the  advance 
of  intelligence.  When  we  conae  to  man,  we  find  "  a 
ganglionic  apparatus  far  surpassing  in  delicacy  and 
complexity  that  of  any  other  animal,  and  in  corre- 
lation therewith  we  find  man  manifesting  an  une- 
qualled range  and  variety  of  psychical  function."2 
Now  the  mind  of  man  is  an  inheritance  from  the 
animal  mind,  by  extraordinary  variation  it  may  be, 
but  an  inheritance  nevertheless.  The  question  at 
once  arises  whether,  as  one  school  of  anthropolo- 
gists hold,  the  brain  of  man  is  an  extraordinary 
variation  and  the  mind  of  primitive  man  has  poten- 
tial capacity  approximating  that  of  modern  civilized 
man,  or  whether,  as  another  school  of  anthropolo- 
gists hold,  the  original  variation  was  small  and 
mental  complexity  and  capacity  themselves  have 
been  an  evolution.  The  first  school,  resting  upon 
inductive  research  in  the  field,  points  to  the  fact, 
for  instance,  that  while  the  heavy  brain  is  more 
frequent  among  the  Europeans  than  among  the 
negroes,  the  actual  statistical  average  of  weights 
and  sizes  would  not  be  very  different  for  the  negro 
and  the  European  white.  The  bulk  of  the  brains 
of  each  race  would  probably  fall  within  about  the 
same  limits.  And  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose, 

1  Cf.  Spencer,  "  Principles  of  Sociology"  (1-2),  p.  520. 

2  Rice,  "  Christian  Faith  in  an  Age  of  Science,"  p.  270. 


THE    MIND    OF    PRIMITIVE    MAN  13 

therefore,  they  say,  that  so  far  as  actual  capacity 
goes,  there  has  been  no  great  advance.  It  would 
indeed  be  a  formidable  task,  with  our  present  knowl- 
edge, to  attempt  to  decide  between  these  opposing 
views,  but  happily  it  is  not  necessary  to  our  pur- 
pose. For  however  the  two  schools  of  anthropolo- 
gists may  differ  with  respect  to  original  potential 
capacity,  the  first  as  readily  as  the  second  would 
admit  that  there  has  been  a  considerable  develop- 
ment of  latent  mental  capacity  along  with  change 
of  environment  and  increase  of  experience. 

Although  the  mind  is  a  unity,  it  is  not  a  rigid 
entity,  but  a  group  of  conscious  states  or  tendencies, 
which,  within  normal  limits,  shift  even  from  day  to 
day.  It  is  also  a  matter  of  common  observation 
that  one  personality  displays  a  certain  group  of 
mental  tendencies  and  another  personality  a  higher 
or  lower  group.  We  say  the  two  persons  are  not 
of  the  same  type  of  mind.  So,  at  successive  stages 
of  racial  development,  higher  and  higher  groups  of 
mental  qualities  have  blossomed,  so  to  speak,  into 
higher  and  higher  types  of  mind.  And  the  primitive 
type  which  we  see  at  least  imperfectly  represented 
in  the  savage  and  which  a  priori  reasoning  would 
urge  as  having  been  probably  represented  in  the 
early  human,  is  a  physically  active,  highly  emo- 
tional type,  with  feeble  reasoning  powers,  —  child 
of  conjecture  and  imagination,  —  a  type  which 
ranges,  to  use  a  psychological  phrase,  from  ideo- 
motor  to  ideo-emotional.  It  is  this  type,  represent- 
ing the  infancy  of  humanity,  so  far  as  we  can  study 


14      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

it  among  contemporary  primitive  people,  to  whose 
mental  and  nervous  characteristics  I  wish  to  give 
some  further  attention.  Whether  or  not  contem- 
porary primitives  are  practically  aboriginal  primi- 
tives, it  is  at  least  certain  that  we  have  among 
populations  yet  dwelling  with  us  an  exceedingly 
rudimentary  and  undeveloped  type  of  mind. 

With  the  more  obvious  mental  traits  and  those 
not  so  important  for  our  present  purpose,  we  need 
not  linger.  For  instance,  the  primitive  man  has  a 
keen  sense  in  directions  in  which  that  sense  has 
been  particularly  trained.  He  is  a  remarkable 
hunter,  and  finds  tracks  of  his  game  under  circum- 
stances that  would  present  great  difficulty  to  the 
eye  of  the  man  of  much  higher  culture.  He  is 
strong  in  perception,  but  weak  in  logical  inter- 
pretation of  his  perceptions,  lacking  in  logical 
connection  in  his  conclusions.1  This  is  no  doubt 
largely  the  result  of  a  crude  experience.  He  has 
no  abundant  and  more  or  less  accurate  tradition 
with  which  to  compare  and  by  which  to  test  his 
new  perceptions.  And  here  arises  a  very  interest- 
ing advance  in  the  mental  evolution  of  primitive 
man.  He  fills  in  the  gaps,  he  makes  connection 
between  the  perceptions,  by  the  use  of  his  imagi- 
nation. And  so  the  imagination  among  primi- 
tive people  finally  reaches  a  very  considerable 
state  of  development,  because  of  its  tremendous 

1  Cf.  Boas,  "  The  Mind  of  Primitive  Man,"  address  of  the  retir- 
ing president  before  the  American  Folk  Lore  Society,  Baltimore, 
December  27,  1900. 


THE    MIND    OF    PRIMITIVE    MAN  1 5 

utility.  In  its  early  period  it  is  very  crude,  as 
it  is  to-day  among  the  negroes  of  the  United 
States,  whose  religious  thinking,  both  lay  and 
clerical,  is  very  frequently  one  long  stretch  of 
most  astounding  images.  Thus  they  fill  in  the 
gaps  in  the  thought.  I  once  heard  a  colored 
brother  in  a  religious  meeting  in  Tennessee,  in  the 
midst  of  mighty  enthusiasm  and  the  most  lively 
assurance  that  he  carried  his  whole  audience  with 
him,  declare  that  the  first  thing  he  wished  to  do 
when  he  reached  Heaven  was  to  bathe  his  soul  in 
the  sea  of  glass  !  And  one  hears  frequently  such 
experiences  as  the  following  recited  in  religious 
meetings,  that  at  the  time  of  conversion,  when  the 
recipient  of  the  experience  was  in  a  cataleptic 
trance  —  as  so  many  negroes  are  at  that  time  —  a 
little  white  man  chopped  open  the  breast  with  an 
axe,  took  the  heart  out,  poured  out  the  black  blood, 
washed  it  pure  in  the  purple  stream,  put  it  back 
and  closed  up  the  opening.  This  reminds  one  of 
the  belief  among  the  primitive  Mohammedans  that 
Mahomet's  heart  was  actually  taken  out,  washed 
and  replaced  by  the  Almighty.1 

And  this  vividness  of  imagination  among  primi- 
tive peoples  has  important  consequences.  What- 
ever the  savage  vividly  conceives  he  believes  with 
all  his  soul.  And  this  helps  to  account  for  his 
credulity,  for  the  dreadful  hold  that  superstition 
has  upon  him.  His  imagination  peoples  his  envi- 
ronment with  a  world  of  spirits,  good  and  evil, 

1  Cf.  Spencer,  "  Principles  of  Sociology  "  (i-i),  p.  343. 


l6      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

dwelling  in  trees  and  animals  and  in  the  whistling 
wind,  in  the  darkness,  in  the  tempest,  in  the 
shadow,  in  the  echo,  in  all  things  animate  and 
inanimate,  more  powerful  than  himself,  powerful 
to  aid,  powerful  to  harm.  A  large  part  of 
his  conscious  life  is  devoted  to  propitiating  the 
friendly,  and  warding  off  the  hostile,  spirit.  Hence 
the  rapid  growth  of  charm  and  magic,  medicine- 
men, exorcists  and  conjurers.  These  superstitions 
have  made  their  way  so  deeply  into  the  mind  of 
the  race  that  they  are  by  no  means  rooted  out 
even  in  highly  developed  communities.  And 
among  primitive  people  everywhere  they  show 
much  of  their  pristine  strength.  The  negro  people 
in  the  South  to-day,  for  example,  are  enveloped  in 
a  cloud  of  superstition.  The  belief  in  signs,  charms, 
spells,  dreams,  except  among  the  few  intelligent 
members  of  the  race,  is  very  general. 

"  Many  neighborhoods  have  an  old  man  or 
woman  who  possesses  unearthly  powers  and  who 
is  constantly  appealed  to  for  assistance  in  connec- 
tion with  love-affairs  and  the  quarrels  of  the 
colored  people  and  in  cases  of  protracted  or 
mysterious  sickness.  The  belief  in  the  power  of 
the  evil  eye  is  nearly  universal,  as  is  the  notion 
that  persons,  domestic  animals,  wells  and  particular 
places  can  be  tricked  —  that  is,  have  a  curse  or 
malign  spell  put  upon  them  —  by  anybody  who 
knows  the  charm  or  method  of  procedure  which 
will  produce  such  a  result.  In  matters  of  love, 
courtship  and  marriage,  the  negroes  are  usually 


THE    MIND    OF    PRIMITIVE    MAN  I? 

extremely  jealous  and  suspicious,  and  magical  arts 
are  commonly  invoked  to  secure  affection  and  to 
alienate  those  who  are  already  attached  to  each 
other.  They  usually  include  the  use  of  a  scrap  of 
clothing  which  has  been  worn  by  the  person  that 
is  to  be  tricked,  or  a  shred  of  his  hair,  a  piece  of  a 
finger  nail  or  toe  nail  or  even  some  dust  from  his 
shoes."  1  Of  course  it  is  easy  to  recognize  in  these 
peculiar  forms  a  principle  of  magic  that  is  widely 
disseminated  among  primitive  people,  namely  that 
for  the  purpose  of  control  of  the  individual,  it  is 
only  necessary  to  have  a  part  of  him  or  his  belong- 
ings, even  the  most  minute.  These  are  only  every- 
day examples,  among  a  people  whom  we  know,  of 
a  vast  mass  of  superstition  which  overlays  the  life 
of  primitive  man.  The  records  of  ethnological 
study  are  full  of  it. 

And  it  is  a  natural  inference  from  what  has 
been  said  of  the  primitive  man's  view  of  the  world, 
peopled  by  demon  spirits,  that  perhaps  his  strong- 
est emotion  should  be  fear.  Of  this  I  think 
ethnological  research  leaves  little  doubt.  Herbert 
_Sjjencer  was  so  convinced  of  it  that  in  his  socio- 
logical  system  fear  of  the  living  among  primitive 
people  becomes  the  root  of  all  political  control,  and 
fear  of  the  dead  the  root  of  all  religious  control.2 
And  Professor  William  James  places  fear  with  lust 
and  anger  as  one  of  the  "  three  most  exciting 
emotions  of  which  human  nature  is  susceptible," 

1  Atlantic  Monthly,  February,  1882,  "  Studies  in  the  South." 

2  Spencer,  "  Principles  of  Sociology"  (l-l),  p.  437. 

c 


1 8       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

and  says  of  it  that  it  is  a  "  genuine  instinct  and  one 
of  the  earliest  shown  by  the  human  child."  1  And 
we  have  here  an  explanation  of  the  perfectly  enor- 
mous amount  of  latent  fear  that  exists  in  every 
population  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  an  inheritance 
from  the  primitive  days,  showing  itself  in  theatre 
panics  and  army  routs,  ever  ready  to  burst  into 
activity  in  spite  of  the  fact  that,  in  general,  progress 
is  measured  by  the  elimination  of  actual  outward 
fear. 

And  finally  we  may  mention  together  a  group  of 
primitive  characteristics,  the  chief  of  which  is 
nervous  instability,  with  its  inevitable  accompani- 
ments of  remarkable  imitativeness  and  suggestibil- 
ity and  great  lack  of  inhibitive  control.  I  think 
perhaps  the  characteristic  of  nervous  instability 
applied  to  primitive  man  may  arouse  some  op- 
position in  the  mind  of  the  reader.  There  is  a 
popular  impression  that  the  South  Sea  Islander, 
for  example,  knows  nothing  of  nerves,  and 
that  the  North  American  Indians  are  an  ex- 
ceedingly phlegmatic  race.  But  there  is  a  good 
deal  of  evidence  accumulating  which  indicates 
that  while  these  primitive  people  may  not  suffer 
from  derangements  of  the  nervous  system  as  the 
more  highly  civilized  suffer,  it  is  nevertheless  true 
that  their  nervous  and  mental  organization  is  in 
a  very  plastic,  unstable  condition.  We  find  some 
excellent  confirmations  of  this  among  the  northern 
Siberian  peoples.  Castren  observed  long  ago  that 
1  James,  "  Psychology  —  Briefer  Course,"  p.  408. 


THE    MIND    OF    PRIMITIVE   MAN  IQ 

if  the  Samoyeds  were  sitting  around  inside  their 
skin  tents  in  the  evening,  and  some  one  crept  up 
and  struck  the  tent  with  his  hand,  half  of  them 
were  likely  to  fall  into  cataleptic  fits.  The  shock 
was  probably  associated  with  some  dreadful 
mythical  tale,  and  the  superstitious  fear  thus 
aroused  threw  them  off  their  delicate  nervous 
balance.  The  investigations  of  Bogoros  and  others 
just  published  in  the  reports  of  the  Jesup  Northern 
Pacific  expedition  reveal  this  condition  of  nervous 
instability  as  very  widespread  among  such  Siberian 
tribes  as  the  Wukaghir,  Lamut  and  Chukchee. 
They  are  so  extraordinarily  susceptible  that  if  the 
observer  makes  a  motion,  they  will  instantly  follow 
it  with  a  like  motion,  and  whole  groups  may  be 
thrust  into  hypnotic  trance  with  little  difficulty. 

I  call  this  peculiar  condition  normal  nervous 
instability,  for  there  seems  to  be  no  evidence  of 
any  large  amount  of  nervous  disease  or  insanity 
among  primitive  men.  In  fact,  in  spite  of  this 
extraordinary  susceptibility,  there  is  probably  less 
insanity  than  among  civilized  peoples.  The  causes 
which  make  for  nervous  derangement  in  a  later 
stage  of  progress  and  environment  do  not  yet 
exist. 

I  think  this  view  will  be  even  more  fully  sub- 
stantiated in  the  mind  of  the  reader,  when  we  come 
to  the  chapter  upon  religious  phenomena  among 
the  North  American  Indians,  where  it  will  be  seen 
that  in  the  development  of  the  Shaker  religion 
among  the  tribes  of  Puget  Sound,  and  later  in  that 


2O      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

extraordinary  Indian  revival  brought  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  country  in  the  spread  of  the  famous 
ghost-dance  religion,  the  highest  degree  of  nervous 
instability  and  suggestibility  is  exhibited.  The  record 
of  this  revival  as  compiled  by  the  Bureau  of  Eth- 
nology at  Washington  is  one  mass  of  trances,  hyp- 
notic rigidities,  dreams,  visions,  rapid  imitations, 
involuntary  tremblings,  violent  spasmodic  actions, 
wild  excitement  and  dancing  kept  up  until  at  least 
one  hundred  out  of  three  or  four  hundred  persons 
engaged  were  lying  wholly  unconscious,  and  were 
left  lying  in  this  state  until  they  recovered,  as  they 
were  supposed  to  be  beholding  visions  of  the  spirit 
world.  Such  a  revelation  is  calculated  to  change 
our  views  somewhat  of  the  essentially  phlegmatic 
character  of  the  red  race  in  America. 

I  add  one  further  bit  of  testimony  from  Swetten- 
ham,  the  distinguished  student  of  the  Malay  race. 
He  affirms  that  any  simple  device  will  serve  to 
attract  the  attention  of  these  artless,  unsophisti- 
cated children  of  nature.  "  Then  by  merely  look- 
ing them  hard  in  the  face,  they  will  fall  helpless 
into  the  hands  of  the  operator,  instantly  lose  all 
self-control,  and  go  passively  through  any  perform- 
ance whether  verbally  imposed  or  merely  suggested 
by  a  sign."  1  In  all  these  cases  nervous  instability 
appears  as  a  fundamental  primitive  trait,  with  im- 
pulsiveness and  a  high  degree  of  imitativeness  and 
suggestibility  as  its  natural  consequence. 

1  In  "Malay  Sketches,"  1895,  quoted  in  Keane — "Man,  Past 
and  Present,"  p.  236. 


THE    MIND    OF    PRIMITIVE    MAN  21 

And  so  it  follows  that  primitive  man  is  led  to 
action  by  impulse  rather  than  by  motives  carefully 
reflected  upon.  His  opinions  are  chiefly  beliefs, 
that  is,  they  are  products  of  imagination  and  emo- 
tion. And  because  there  is  so  much  emotion  in 
his  opinions,  it  carries  him  quickly  into  action. 
His  will  power,  in  any  high  sense,  is  relatively 
weak.  He  lacks  inhibitive  control.  Not  entirely, 
however.  The  Eskimo  will  sit  motionless  at  a  seal 
hole  for  five,  eight,  twelve,  fifteen  hours,  if  necessary, 
with  his  spear  all  the  time  uplifted  to  strike.  In 
earlier  days,  the  Indian  could  endure  torture  at  the 
stake  without  a  tremor  or  a  cry.  But  in  general  it 
may  be  said,  I  think,  that  civilized  peoples  exhibit 
a  far  wider  range  of  powers  of  inhibition  than  the 
primitive  man.  And,  as  much  as  in  anything  else, 
therein  consists  civilization. 

It  is  with  some  hesitation  that  I  offer  the  sug- 
gestion that  a  correlation  which  others  have  con- 
tended for  between  nervous  instability  and  a  large 
subliminal  field  of  consciousness  l  may  find  further 
confirmation  in  an  investigation  of  the  mind  of 
primitive  man.  I  know  that  many  psychologists 
believe  the  subliminal  to  be  vague  and  a  term  to 
conjure  with.  And  so,  no  doubt,  it  has  often  been. 
But  the  fact  remains  that  there  is  a  wide  margin 
of  what  may  be  called,  for  want  of  a  better  term, 
subconsciousness,  stretching  away  beyond  the  hori- 
zon of  the  full  consciousness  of  every  personality. 
And  from  that  shadowy  land  come  at  call  many 

1  Cf.  William  James,  "  Varieties  of  Religious  Experiencr,"  j>.  251. 


22       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

elements  which  make  up  shifting  mental  states  and 
momentary  conscious  experiences  —  long-forgotten 
memories,  impressions,  convictions.  And  there 
come,  too,  without  our  willing,  many  factors  which 
we  cannot  account  for,  the  superstitions,  fancies, 
impulses,  dreams,  that  seem  to  belong  to  another 
personality  —  though  they  may  be  our  very  own, 
by  brain-cell  inheritance  from  a  dim  and  distant 
animal  and  human  past,  incubated  unconsciously 
by  our  own  mental  mechanism. 

However  this  may  be,  all  I  wish  to  call  attention 
to  here  is  that  among  primitive  people  the  appear- 
ance of  the  sensory  and  motor  automatisms  — 
active  convulsion  as  well  as  hallucination  and 
vision,  all  that  group  of  reflex  phenomena  which 
everywhere  follow  upon  overpowering  imagination 
and  emotion,  as  well  as  the  so-called  demoniac 
states  —  the  appearance  of  all  these  seems  usually 
to  be  marked  by  a  considerable  fading  of  the  field 
of  normal  rational  consciousness,  and  very  fre- 
quently by  the  emergence  into  view  of  that  myste- 
rious and  active  double  personality  which  has  so 
puzzled  psychologists.  There  is  an  interesting 
collection  of  these  phenomena  from  the  Shantung 
province  of  China  in  a  little  book  called  "  Demon 
Possession,"  by  the  Rev.  John  L.  Nevius,  for  forty 
years  a  missionary  to  the  Chinese.  This  gentle- 
man took  unusual  pains  in  the  gathering  of  in- 
formation from  many  sources,  and  was  himself 
for  a  long  period  an  observer.  His  interpretation 
is  distinctly  theological,  but  that  does  no  harm  to 


THE    MIND    OF    PRIMITIVE    MAN  23 

the  book  as  a  storehouse  of  material.  The  obser- 
vations made  disclose  a  high  degree  of  nervous 
instability  among  the  thoroughly  healthy,  ignorant 
and  primitive  populations  of  the  interior  of  China. 
Under  the  influence  of  autosuggestion  without  ex- 
citement, or  in'  a  time  of  unusual  perturbation  in 
the  community,  there  are  developed  in  every  vil- 
lage many  cases  of  possession  wherein  the  sup- 
posed demoniac  passes  into  an  abnormal  state, 
sometimes  of  depression  and  melancholy,  some- 
times of  ferocity  or  malignity  and  sometimes 
of  mental  exaltation  and  ecstasy.  "The  subject 
is  often  thrown  into  paroxysms  more  or  less  vio- 
lent and  falls  senseless  upon  the  ground.  And 
the  most  striking  characteristic  of  these  cases 
everywhere  is  that  the  subject  evidences  another 
personality,  and  the  normal  personality  for  the 
time  being  is  partially  or  wholly  dormant."  1 

These  are  only  Castren's  Samoyed  cases  over 
again,  and  the  traditional  belief  of  the  Chinese  in 
evil  spirits  and  the  superstition  and  fear  thus 
created,  play  their  powerful  part  in  causing  these 
dreadful  automatisms. 

The  kinds  of  reflex  phenomena  so  common 
among  these  primitives  of  China  are  worthy  of  note 
in  view  of  their  likeness  to  those  we  shall  observe 
later  in  connection  with  several  of  the  famous  re- 
ligious revivals  of  our  own  country  and  Great 
Britain.  The  subject  has  visions  and  dreams ;  he 
laughs,  rolls  on  the  ground,  leaps  about,  exhibits 

1  Nevius,  "  Demon  Possession,"  p.  143  f. 


24      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

contortions  of  the  body  or  tvvistings  of  the  neck, 
changes  color;  the  body  shakes  violently,  becomes 
rigid  ;  the  subject  falls  in  a  fit.1  And  the  interest- 
ing fact  is  that  the  possession  disappears  naturally 
in  an  individual  who  is  taken  out  of  his  environ- 
ment of  superstition  and  ignorance  and  brought 
by  the  missionaries  under  the  dominion  of  intel- 
ligence.2 

It  is  perhaps  safe  to  say  that  the  mental  and  ner- 
vous characteristics  of  primitive  man  are  in  these 
broad  outlines  similar  throughout  the  world. 
1  Cf.  Nevius,  op.  cit.,  pp.  53,  56,  57.  2  Ibid.,  p.  18  f. 


CHAPTER  III 

MENTAL    TRAITS    OF   A   PSYCHOLOGICAL    "  CROWD  " 

PERHAPS  no  book  of  recent  years  has  done  more 
to  awaken  interest  in  social  psychology  than 
Gustave  Le  Bon's  study  of  "The  Crowd."  It  is 
possible  to  say  this  and  yet  hold  that  there  is 
a  great  amount  of  exaggeration  in  its  teaching. 
But  there  is  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  it  also,  and  I 
think  the  general  theory  may  be  applied  in  an  en- 
lightening way  in  the  study  of  the  religious  revival. 
Le  Bon  is  a  foremost  pioneer  in  this  field,  and  this 
chapter  presents  chiefly  a  summary  of  the  prin- 
ciples enunciated  by  him  and  by  other  social  psy- 
chologists. Durkeim  had  preceded  him  with  a 
study  of  the  coercion  or  intimidation  of  the  in- 
dividual by  the  mass.  The  stage  fright  of  the 
actress  when  she  first  appears  before  the  footlights, 
the  terror  of  the  man  who  is  about  to  make  his 
first  speech,  the  dread  of  the  candidate  who  appears 
before  an  examining  board,  these  are  illustrations 
that  occur  to  everybody  of  the  strange  psychologi- 
cal influence  of  mere  numbers  over  against  the 
helpless  individual.  It  was  Le  Bon's  task  to  de- 
velop this  everyday  bjt  of  psychology  into  a  broad 
study  of  the  psychological  "crowd."  It  is  not  the 

25 


26      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

mere  physical  sense  of  the  word,  the  mass  of  men, 
of  which  Le  Bon  is  thinking.  He  means  a  group 
of  persons,  small  or  large,  who  are  for  the  time 
being  in  some  kind  of  mental  agreement,  who  are 
a  mental  unity  or  practically  so.  A  lynching  party 
is  a  crowd.  A  political  meeting  is  a  crowd.  Le  Bon 
reasons  that  the  individual  is  one  thing  in  such  a 
company,  and  another  thing  out  of  it.  The  crowd 
for  the  time  being  swallows  him  up,  and  has  feel- 
ings of  its  own,  thoughts  of  its  own,  a  character 
of  its  own.  The  large  sprinkling  of  respectable 
farmers  who  made  the  imbecile  march  in  Coxie's 
army  from  California  to  Washington  and  who  sunk 
every  dollar  they  had  in  the  world  in  the  enterprise, 
if  they  could  have  considered  the  matter  objec- 
tively, would  have  laughed  to  scorn  such  a  method 
of  accomplishing  reform.  But  the  judgment  of 
each  was  swallowed  up  in  the  impulse  of  many. 

The  mind  of  the  crowd  is  strangely  like  that 
of  primitive  man.  Most  of  the  people  in  it  may 
be  far  from  primitive  in  emotion,  in  thought,  in 
character;  nevertheless  the  result  tends  always  to 
be  the  same.  Stimulation  immediately  begets 
action.  Reason  is  in  abeyance.  The  cool,  rational 
speaker  has  little  chance  beside  the  skilful,  emo- 
tional orator.  The  crowd  thinks  in  images,  and 
speech  must  take  this  form  to  be  accessible  to  it. 
The  images  are  not  connected  by  any  natural  bond, 
and  they  take  each  other's  place  like  the  slides  of 
a  magic  lantern.1  It  follows  from  this,  of  course, 

1  Cf.  Le  Bon,  "  The  Crowd,"  p.  69. 


TRAITS    OF    A    PSYCHOLOGICAL    "  CROWD  "        2/ 

that  appeals  to  the  imagination  have  paramount 
influence. 

The  crowd  is  united  and  governed  by  emotion 
rather  than  by  reason.  Emotion  is  the  natural  > 
bond,  for  men  differ  much  less  in  this  respect  than 
in  intellect.  It  is  also  true  that  in  a  crowd  of  a 
thousand  men  the  amount  of  emotion  actually 
generated  and  existing  is  far  greater  than  the  sum 
which  might  conceivably  be  obtained  by  adding 
together  the  emotion  of  the  individuals  taken  by 
themselves.  The  explanation  of  this  is  that  the  at- 
tention of  the  crowd  is  always  directed  either  by  the 
circumstances  of  the  occasion  or  by  the  speake'r 
to  certain  common  ideas,  such  as  "  liberty "  or  > 
"democracy"  in  political  gatherings,  and  "salva-, 
tion"  in  religious  gatherings,  or  to  certain  emblems 
or  symbolic  images,  such  as  the  flag,  the  native  land, 
the  church,  the  Scriptures ;  and  every  individual  in 
the  gathering  is  stirred  with  emotion,  not  only  be*- 
cause  the  idea  or  the  shibboleth  stirs  him,  as  it  would 
if  he  were  by  himself,  but  also  because  he  is  con- 
scious that  every  other  individual  in  the  gathering 
believes  in  the  idea  or  the  shibboleth,  and  is 
stirred  by  it  too.  And  this  enormously  increases 
the  volume  of  his  own  emotion  and  consequently 
the  total  volume  of  emotion  of  the  crowd.1  As 
in  the  case  of  the  primitive  mind,  imagination  has 
unlocked  the  flood-gates  of  emotion,  which  on  oc- 
casion may  become  wild  enthusiasm  or  demoniac 
frenzy. 

1  Cf.  Giddings,  "Elements  of  Sociology,"  p.  123. 


28      PRIMITIVE   TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

The  very  fact  that  men  in  a  crowd  are  so  close 
together  and  can  so  readily  communicate  with  one 
another  makes  them  particularly  liable  to  a  swift 
contagion  of  feeling.  The  force  of  this  contagion 
is  so  great  that  it  often  carries  off  their  feet  men 
who  are  in  no  sort  of  mental  agreement  with  the 
purpose  of  the  gathering.  We  shall  find  numerous 
instances  of  this  in  the  records  of  religious  revivals. 

Wherever  reason  is  subordinated  and  feeling  is 
supreme,  the  influence  is  always  in  the  direction 
of  the  sweeping  away  of  inhibitive  control.  The 
critical  faculty  is  dormant;  but  at  the  same  time 
that  it  is  repressed,  other  faculties  are  brought 
to  a  high  degree  of  exaltation.  Instinct,  impulse, 
imitation,  emotion  —  the  primitive  characteristics  — 
are  awake  and  extraordinarily  alert.  People  who 
are  easily  subject  to  suggestion  become  more 
thoroughly  so,  and  people  who  are  by  no  means 
naturally  susceptible  become  suggestible  under  the 
control  of  a  crowd.  This  suggestibility  ranges  all 
the  way  from  the  normal  to  the  abnormal  or  hyp- 
notic, under  the  influence  of  the  skilful  orator  or 
preacher.  And  we  shall  therefore  expect  to  ob- 
serve in  the  great  religious  audiences  of  primitive 
men  which  we  are  to  study  a  large  number  of  the 
reflex  phenomena  that  are  everywhere  the  peculiar 
evidence  of  remarkable  suggestibility  and  nervous 
instability. 

The  means  of  influencing  their  audiences  upon 
which  skilful  speakers  universally  depend,  are  ap- 
peals to  imagination  and  emotion,  direct  and 


TRAITS   OF    A    PSYCHOLOGICAL    "  CROWD  "        2Q 

indirect  suggestion,  affirmation  and  repetition. 
Repetition  is  one  of  the  surest  means  of  getting  an 
idea  firmly  into  the  mind  of  a  crowd  as  well  as  of 
the  child  or  of  the  savage.  As  Mr.  Dooley  phrases 
it  in  his  philosophy  —  "I  belave  annything  at  all, 
if  ye  only  tell  it  to  me  aften  enough." 

The  crowd,  like  the  individual,  but  to  a  greater 
degree,  easily  falls  under  the  sway  of  the  instinctive 
emotions,  particularly  latent  or  actual  fear.  Under 
the  stimulus  of  a  panic  the  latent  fear  of  inheri- 
tance is  brought  to  the  surface  to  intensify  the 
influence  of  actual  and  present  horror.  It  was 
so  in  the  Iroquois  theatre.  I  do  not  offer  it  as 
the  sole  explanation  of  the  phenomenon,  but  it 
is  more  than  a  coincidence,  I  believe,  that  the 
great  revival  of  1857  in  the  United  States  followed 
directly  upon  the  terrible  business  disasters  of  that 
year,  when  men's  minds  were  crazy  with  financial 
fear.  It  is  more  than  a  coincidence  that  the  most 
frightful  period  of  the  appalling  mental  epidemics 
of  the  middle  ages  should  have  been  the  last  quarter 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  when  men's  minds  were 
under  the  thrall  of  terror  from  the  Black  Death, 
the  most  terrible  plague  in  human  history.1 

Under  this  analysis  the  crowd  presents  itself  as 
the  great  driving  force,  so  to  speak,  of  impulsive 
social  action.  "  From  the  moment  that  reason 
finally  loses  its  control  over  masses  of  communi- 
cating men,  they  fall  under  the  power  of  imitation 

1  Cf.  White, "  The  History  of  the  Warfare  of  Science  with  Theol- 
ogy," Vol.  I,  p.  187. 


3O      PRIMITIVE   TRAITS   IN   RELIGIOUS   REVIVALS 

and  hypnotic  suggestion;  and  emotional  fury  sweeps 
through  them  with  increasing  volume  and  acceler- 
ating velocity,  as  a  conflagration  sweeps  through 
accumulations  of  combustible  material."  1 

There  are  at  least  two  factors  to  be  mentioned  in 
conclusion,  which  tend  to  modify  the  effects  de- 
scribed in  this  chapter.  The  differing  temperament 
of  populations  is  one.  The  Anglo-Saxon  crowd  is 
one  thing,  the  Latin  or  Celtic  crowd  quite  another. 
The  extent,  intensity  and  character  of  the  sympa- 
thetic outbreak  will  vary  considerably  with  popula- 
tions of  different  races  and  different  degrees  of 
development  within  the  same  race.  It  is  also  neces- 
sary to  make  an  important  modification  in  the  whole 
theory  of  Le  Bon.  His  "foule"  or  crowd  includes 
not  only  those  who  have  come  together  in  one  place 
for  a  common  purpose,  but  also  a  group  or  multitude 
of  persons  easily  communicating  in  any  way  what- 
soever.2 His  conclusions  in  their  radical  form  are 
by  no  means  true  under  the  latter  circumstances, 
and  under  the  former  circumstances  they  are  in 
need  of  substantial  abatement.  If  a  crowd  never 
comes  together  in  close  physical  contact,  or  if, 
coming  together,  it  periodically  breaks  up,  there  is 
time  for  rational  inhibition  to  intervene  and  do  its 
perfect  work.  If  Le  Bon's  theory  were  completely 
true,  popular  government  would  be  a  snare.  Ac-^ 
cording  to  his  view  you  never  get  in  a  popular 
assembly  the  wisdom  of  the  mass,  but  only  illusion, 

1  Giddings,  "  Democracy  and  Empire,"  p.  56. 
8  Cf.  Giddings, "  Principles  of  Sociology,"  p.  151. 


TRAITS   OF   A    PSYCHOLOGICAL    "CROWD  3! 

delusion,  hallucination  and  other  evils  which  follow 
upon  impulse  and  suggestion.  But  Abraham 
Lincoln  had  saner  vision  when  he  said  that  you 
can  fool  all  of  the  people  some  of  the  time  and 
some  of  the  people  all  of  the  time,  vbut  you  can't 
fool  all  the  people  all  the  time.  The  instinct  of 
the  multitude  is  sound,  and  wise  popular  govern- 
ment is  always  possible  with  the  aid  of  constitutional 
checks  and  balances  and  rational  leadership  —  a 
leadership  that  depends  not  upon  hypnotic  arts,  but 
upon  honest,  straightforward  thinking.  The  ap- 
plication of  this  modification  to  religious  revivals 
will  appear  in  good  time.  It  is  at  once  manifest, 
however,  -that  a  religious  camp-meeting  such  as 
formerly  L  took  place  in  the  central  south  —  in 
Kentucky  or  Tennessee,  for  example  —  which  con- 
tinued for  days  together,  morning,  noon  and  night, 
which  never  broke  up  until  the  food  supply  gave 
out,  and  which  was  characterized  by  fervid  appeals 
to  feeling  and  imagination  rather  than  to  intelli- 
gence, would  be  a  very  hotbed  of  disorder  and 
mental  disintegration.  And  such  indeed  it  often 
was.  While  on  the  other  hand,  religious  gather- 
ings controlled  by  sound  sense  and  rational  though 
deep  feeling,  with  alternation  of  meeting  and 
separation,  with  opportunity  for  private  meditation, 
might  have  very  different  effects.  But  with  this\^ 
modification,  our  conclusion  must  be  that  the  un-  , 
restrained  tendency  of  the  psychological  crowd  is  | 
to  lay  bare  in  the  individuals  composing  it  primitive 
and  uncontrolled  mental  and  nervous  traits.  *<L/ 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE    GHOST-DANCE    AMONG    THE    NORTH    AMERICAN 
INDIANS 

THE  fourteenth  annual  report  of  the  Bureau  of 
Ethnology  at  Washington  contains  some  exceed- 
ingly illuminating  material  with  respect  to  religious 
revivals  among  a  primitive  people.1  There  have 
been  two  of  these  of  considerable  magnitude  among 
the  North  American  Indians  within  the  last  twenty 
years,  the  Shaker  and  the  ghost-dance  revivals. 
The  latter  had  far  greater  extension,  but  the 
former  is  notable  for  its  peculiar  method  which 
was  copied  in  the  ghost-dance.  We  shall  therefore 
pause  to  examine  it  briefly.  The  red-skin  Shakers 
of  Puget  Sound  are  of  course  not  in  any  way  allied 
to  the  white-skin  Shakers  of  Watervliet  and  other 
places  in  the  eastern  states.  They  are  an  entirely 
distinct  religious  denomination,  but  the  name  of 
each  rose  from  the  same  phenomenon  —  a  nervous 
twitching  which  characterized  the  white  Shakers 
in  the  days  of  their  origin  and  the  red  Shakers 
within  our  own  time.  The  following  facts  with 
respect  to  the  movement  I  glean  from  the  ethno- 
logical report  mentioned  above.  The  founder  of 

1  "The  Ghost-dance  Religion  and  the  Sioux  Outbreak  of  1890," 
by  James  Mooney. 

32 


THE    INDIAN    GHOST-DANCE  33 

the  religion  is  Squ-sacht-un.  His  chief  high  priest 
is  Ai-yal.  Both  are  of  the  Squaxin  tribe.  In  the 
early  eighties  the  founder  fell  into  a  trance  one 
morning,  and  remained  therein  till  mid-afternoon. 
He  dreamed  himself  at  the  entrance  of  heaven, 
from  which  the  angels  kept  him  back  and  charged 
him  to  return  to  earth  and  teach  his  people  what 
they  must  do  to  enter  finally  the  happy  hunting- 
grounds.  Accordingly,  as  soon  as  he  awoke,  he 
embarked  upon  his  divinely  appointed  mission.  Of 
course  he  was  familiar  with  Christian  customs  and 
Christian  doctrines,  for  white  missionaries  had  been 
in  that  field  for  years,  without  however  producing 
any  such  result  as  the  Shaker  movement.  Chris- 
tian form  and  Christian  principle  were  to  some 
extent,  therefore,  sprinkled  through  their  practices 
from  the  beginning,  making  it  a  curious  mixture  of 
Christianity  and  savagery.  At  their  first  meetings, 
the  ceremonial  quite  largely  followed  that  of  the 
ancient  sacred  and  secret  society  of  their  savage 
days,  in  which  persons  went  into  hypnotic  trance 
and  became  rigid.  The  votaries  of  the  new  faith, 
therefore,  like  the  votaries  of  the  old  "  tomahnous," 
dreamed  dreams,  saw  visions,  and  were  overcome  by 
violent  shaking.  "  With  their  arms  at  full  length, 
their  hair  and  arms  would  shake  very  rapidly. 
Gazing  into  Heaven,  their  heads  would  also  shake, 
sometimes  for  a  few  minutes,  sometimes  for  a  few 
hours,  sometimes  for  half  the  night."  The  shak- 
ing took  possession  of  entirely  normal  people,  but 
it  finally  became  so  extreme  that  it  seemed  likely 


34      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

to  cast  great  numbers  of  them  into  insanity,  at 
which  crisis  the  agent  interfered.  When  the  shak- 
ing was  discouraged  it  very  largely  ceased,  although 
some  declared  at  first  that  they  could  not  stop. 
However,  when  the  excitement  died  away,  they 
found  they  could  bring  themselves  under  control. 

It  spread  most  easily  among  the  ignorant  — 
those  who  had  not  yet  learned  to  read,  or  been 
under  any  of  the  wholesome  restraints  of  proper 
secular  or  religious  instruction.  The  movement, 
as  well  as  the  shaking,  spread  by  imitation  from 
camp  to  camp  about  Skookum  Bay,  Mud  Bay, 
Squaxon,  and  then  among  the  Nisqually  and 
Chehalis  Indians,  and  later  among  the  Yakima 
and  other  eastern  tribes  of  the  Columbia  region. 
And  Dr.  Livingston  Farrand  tells  me  that  when 
he  still  later  visited  the  coast  of  Washington,  the 
movement  had  spread  among  the  Nez  Perces,  and 
even  into  Idaho.  The  suggestibility  of  the  Indian 
race  in  that  part  of  the  country  was  so  marked 
that  almost  nobody  could  withstand  it.  There 
were  frequently  not  ten  members  of  the  tribe  that 
were  not  converts.  The  Indians  spoke  of  it  as 
being  as  catching  as  the  measles.  "  Many  who 
at  first  ridiculed  it  and  fought  against  it  and  in- 
voked the  aid  of  the  agent  to  stop  it,  were 
drawn  into  it  after  a  little  and  became  its  strong 
upholders." 

The  prominent  feature  of  their  revival  method, 
which  the  ghost-dancers  have  probably  copied,  is 
naked  hypnotism.  Indian  medicine-men  from  one 


THE    INDIAN    GHOST-DANCE  35 

end  of  the  country  to  the  other  have  always  un- 
derstood how  to  produce  many  of  the  effects  of 
suggestion,  although  they  have  not  understood 
the  force  they  were  dealing  with  and  have  honestly 
considered  it  a  supernatural  endowment.  By  the 
use  of  this  art  they  are  able  to  bring  about,  under 
right  conditions,  involuntary  trembling,  spasmodic 
action,  rigidity  and  finally  unconsciousness.  This 
hypnotic  method  is  used  not  only  to  influence  to 
conversion,  but  as  a  means  of  throwing  the  devo- 
tees into  trance  communication  with  their  departed 
friends,  and  also  as  a  preventive  and  cure  of 
disease. 

It  will  no  doubt  be  interesting  to  many  to  learn 
that  the  primitive  red  wards  of  the  nation  are 
very  modern  in  their  religious  differentiations. 
Millerism  flourished  among  the  Cherokees  of  Ala- 
bama and  Georgia  some  time  before  it  appeared 
among  the  white  people  in  the  state  of  New  York 
and  elsewhere.  Early  in  the  last  century  many 
members  of  that  tribe,  expecting  the  end  of  the 
world,  left  their  bees,  their  orchards,  and  all  that 
they  possessed  and  made  for  the  mountains  of 
Carolina,  among  the  highest  summits  of  which 
their  original  William  Miller  told  them  they  must 
be  on  a  certain  day  to  escape  destruction.  And 
as  late  as  1890  something  very  like  spiritualism 
was  in  a  state  of  active  existence  among  the  Arap- 
aho  and  Cheyenne,  and  many  members  of  the 
tribe  professed  to  have  been  in  heaven  where 
they  talked  with  their  dead  friends,  then  came 


36      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

back  and  brought  messages  from  the  other  world. 
And  among  these  Shakers  of  Puget  Sound  the 
faith-cure  doctrine  has  flourished  like  a  green  bay 
tree.  This  branch  of  the  sect  was  headed  origi- 
nally by  the  brother  of  Ai-yal,  and  is  still  in  exist- 
ence. Their  cure  for  disease  consists  in  the 
members  of  the  cult  "  shaking  in  a  circle  about  a 
sick  person,  dressed  in  ceremonial  costume."  The 
religious  practitioner  waves  a  cloth  in  front  of  the 
patient  "  with  a  gentle,  fanning  motion,  and,  blow- 
ing at  the  same  time,  proceeds  to  drive  the  disease 
out  of  the  body,  beginning  at  the  feet  and  working 
upward.  The  assistant  stands  ready  to  seize  the 
disease  with  his  cloth  when  it  is  driven  out  of  the 
head."1  And  they  are  able  to  boast  of  many  real 
cures. 

The  Shakers  of  Puget  Sound  present  a  strange 
combination  of  superstition  and  ignorance  of  the 
grossest  sort  with  some  really  ethical  religion  which 
they  have  learned  from  the  white  missionaries ;  for 
it  must  be  said  to  their  credit  that  they  make  vigor- 
ous onslaughts  against  drinking  and  gambling,  the 
two  great  Indian  vices. 

But  of  greater  interest  is  the  remarkable  spread 
of  the  famous  ghost-dance  religion  during  the  later 
eighties  and  the  early  nineties  of  the  last  century. 
It  is  probably  by  far  the  most  extensive  religious 
movement  among  the  Indians  of  America  within 
the  historic  period.2  It  had  its  prophet,  Wovoka, 

1  Fourteenth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  761. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  927. 


THE    INDIAN    GHOST-DANCE  37 

the  Messiah  of  the  ghost-dance,  who  lived  among 
the  Paiutes  in  western  Nevada.  There  is  some 
evidence  that  he  was  initiated  into  the  newer  hyp- 
notic mysteries  of  the  Shakers,  but  his  doctrines, 
through  the  medium  of  imitation  and  of  that  pecul- 
iar form  of  psychological  crowd,  the  ghost-dance, 
spread  far  and  wide  throughout  the  tribes  both 
west  and  east  of  the  Rockies.  The  hope  of  this 
movement  was  of  a  paradise  regained,  a  happy 
hunting-ground  here  below,  the  whole  Indian  race, 
living  and  dead,  leading  a  life  of  aboriginal  delight 
upon  a  regenerated  earth. 

The  ghost-dance  was  the  driving  force  of  the 
movement.  Mr.  Mooney  came  upon  the  instruc- 
tions which  the  Messiah  had  sent  to  the  Cheyenne 
and  Arapaho  which  were  in  effect  to  hold  the 
gatherings  every  six  weeks,  and  dance  four  suc- 
cessive nights.  On  the  last  night,  the  dance  was 
to  be  kept  up  until  the  morning  of  the  fifth  day, 
when  all  were  to  bathe  in  the  river  and  then  dis- 
perse to  their  homes. 

This  performance  was  not  a  variety  of  the  war 
dance,  as  many  have  supposed,  for  no  weapon  of 
any  kind  was  allowed  to  be  carried  during  its 
progress.  It  was  a  sacred  dance.  The  name  is 
taken  from  the  ghost-shirt  or  ghost-dress  of  white 
cotton  cloth  worn  by  males  and  females.  The 
origin  of  the  costume  has  been  traced  with  some 
plausibility  to  the  trance  of  an  Indian  woman  who 
had  seen  her  friends  in  heaven  thus  attired. 
Among  the  Shoshoni  and  Paiutes,  sometimes  a 


38       PRIMITIVE   TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

thousand  people  would  take  part.  The  excitement 
was  very  pronounced.  "  When  the  dancers  were 
worn  out  mentally  and  physically,  the  medicine- 
men would  shout  that  they  could  see  the  faces  of 
departed  friends  and  relatives  moving  about  the 
circle.  No  pen  can  describe  the  result.  All 
shouted  in  chorus  and  then  danced  and  sang  until 
they  fell  into  a  confused  and  exhausted  mass  on 
the  ground."  1 

This  sacred  dance  really  took  the  form  of  an 
Indian  camp-meeting.  A  teacher  on  the  Pine 
Ridge  reservation  has  given  us  a  very  suggestive 
and  detailed  description  of  one  which  she  attended 
on  White  Clay  Creek,  June  20,  iSgo.2  I  abridge 
from  her  account. 

Three  hundred  tents  were  placed  in  a  circle  around  a  large 
pine  tree.  In  the  centre  were  gathered  the  medicine-men,  also 
those  who  had  been  so  fortunate  as  to  have  had  visions  and  in 
them  had  seen  and  talked  with  friends  who  had  died.  A  com- 
pany of  fifteen  started  a  chant  and  were  marching  abreast, 
others  coming  in  behind  as  they  marched.  The  crowd  gathered 
about  the  tree.  The  high  priest  or  master  of  ceremonies 
spoke  for  about  fifteen  minutes.  Then  they  arose  and  formed 
a  circle.  Three  or  four  hundred  persons  marched  around, 
setting  up  the  most  fearful  and  heart-piercing  wails,  moaning, 
shrieking,  naming  over  their  departed  relatives  and  friends, 
raising  their  eyes  to  heaven  with  hands  clasped  high  above 
their  heads,  invoking  the  power  of  the  Great  Spirit  to^allow 
them  to  see  and  talk  with  their  people  who  had  died.  [__After 
fifteen  minutes  all  sat  down  and  listened  to  another  address  of 
encouragement  and  assurance  of  the  coming  Messiah.  When 

1  Fourteenth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  806. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  916. 


THE    INDIAN   GHOST-DANCE  3Q 

t>O.S  HNCSLiHS,  GP.Ls. 

they  arose  again,  there  was  intense  excitement.  This  time 
they  danced  more  rapidly,  their  hands  moving  from  side  to 
side,  their  bodies  swaying.  In  the  ring  were  men,  women 
and  children,  the  strong  and  the  robust,  and  some  who  were 
in  poor  health  who  it  was  thought  could  be  cured  by  joining 
in  the  dance  and  losing  consciousnessTI  Under  the  power  of 
the  emotion,  and  of  the  hypnotic  method  employed  by  the 
medicine-men,  of  which  more  will  be  said  later,  first  one  and 
then  another  would  break  from  the  ring,  stagger  and  fall  down. 
Some  would  appear  conscious  but  with  every  muscle  twitching 
and  quivering ;  some  appeared  to  be  perfectly  unconscious ; 
some  would  run,  stepping  high  and  pawing  the  air  in  a  fright- 
ful manner.  Those  who  fell  were  never  disturbed,  and  no 
notice  was  taken  of  them  save  to  keep  the  crowd  away.  They 
were  supposed  to  be  enjoying  a  season  of  refreshing  in  the 
spirit  world.  The  dance  was  kept  up  until  fully  one  hundred 
persons  out  of  the  three  or  four  hundred  who  took  part  were 
lying  absolutely  unconscious.  Then  they  stopped  and  seated 
themselves  in  a  circle,  and,  as  each  one  recovered  from  his 
trance,  he  was  brought  to  the  centre  of  the  ring  to  relate  his 
experience. 

I  am  reminded  of  the  incident  of  the  visit  of  the 
Emperor  of  Brazil  to  the  exposition  at  Philadelphia 
in  1876.  They  showed  him  the  Corliss  engine. 
Some  one  told  him  how  many  revolutions  it  could 
make  in  a  minute.  "  Goodness  !  "  he  is  reported 
to  have  exclaimed,  "  that  beats  a  South  American 
Republic."  It  may  be  said  of  this  Indian  gather- 
ing on  White  Clay  Creek  that  it  beats  a  Kentucky 
camp-meeting  of  the  pioneer  days.  But  there  are 
some  suggestive  similarities  between  them,  as  I 
think  my  reader  will  aver  when  we  come  to  ex- 
amine in  detail  the  great  revival  of  1800. 

As  among  the  Shakers,  the  revival  method  is 


4O     PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

thoroughly  hypnotic.  The  medicine-man  stands 
within  the  ring,  holding  in  his  hand  an  eagle 
feather  or  a  handkerchief.  Sometimes  he  holds 
the  feather  in  one  hand  and  the  scarf  in  the 
other.  The  dancers  circle  round  him  singing 
songs  in  time  with  the  dance  step.  The  first 
indication  that  an  individual  of  least  self-control 
is  being  affected  is  observable  in  a  slight  muscu- 
lar tremor.  The  first  subject  is  usually  a  woman. 
The  medicine-man  is  on  the  watch,  and  he  comes 
immediately  and  stands  in  front  of  the  subject, 
"  looking  intently  into  her  face,  and  whirling  the 
feather  or  the  handkerchief,  or  both,  rapidly  in 
front  of  her  eyes,  moving  slowly  round  with  the 
dancers  at  the  same  time,  always  facing  the  woman. 
All  this  time  he  keeps  up  a  series  of  sharp  excla- 
mations, Hu  !  Hu !  Hu !,  like  the  rapid  breathing 
of  an  exhausted  runner.  Soon  the  woman  is  over- 
come, and  staggers  into  the  ring,  while  the  circle 
closes  up  behind  her."1  The  medicine-man  then 
gives  his  whole  attention  to  her  until  he  completes 
his  work  and  she  becomes  rigid,  uttering  low 
moans,  with  her  eyes  fixed  and  staring,  and  then 
totally  unconscious.  Immediately  he  begins  the 
same  process  with  some  other  who  has  become 
susceptible. 

These  phenomena  have  been  common  in  several 
of  the  great  revivals  in  the  civilized  white  popula- 
tions, and  many  examples  of  pretence  have  been 
ferreted  out  in  them  all  —  notably  by  Charles  Wes- 

1  Fourteenth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  925. 


THE    INDIAN    GHOST- DANCE  4! 

ley  in  the  cases  which  resulted  from  his  brother's 
preaching  —  and  there  are  undoubtedly  instances 
of  pure  deception  among  the  Indians.  But  compe- 
tent witnesses  assure  us  that  with  them,  as  with 
the  more  advanced  peoples  under  similar  influ- 
ences, the  great  proportion  were  unquestionably 
genuine  and  beyond  the  control  of  the  subject. 
While  we  are  still  speaking  of  this  matter,  it  is 
worthy  of  note  that  not  all  the  leaders  in  the  ghost- 
dance  have  this  power  of  influencing  suggestibles 
in  the  same  measure.  And  so  it  comes  about  that 
a  process  of  selection  of  medicine-men  takes  place. 
Any  man  or  woman  who  has  been  in  a  trance  and 
derived  inspiration  from  the  other  world  is  at 
liberty  to  go  within  the  circle  and  endeavor  to  bring 
others  into  that  condition.  Superior  ability  selects 
the  religious  leaders  as  in  the  old  days  it  selected 
the  military  leaders. 

It  was  matter  of  observation  with  the  representa- 
tive of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  that  young  women 
were  the  first  to  be  affected  with  the  ghost-dance, 
then  the  older  women  and  lastly  men,  though  some- 
times a  man  of  a  particular  temperament  was 
affected  first.  The  subjects  were  usually  strong 
and  healthy  as  the  average  of  their  type.  Tem- 
perament, more  than  physical  condition,  decided 
who  should  first  lose  self-control. 

As  to  the  spread  of  the  ghost-dance  religion,  it 
was  taken  up  nearly  simultaneously  by  the  Ban- 
nock, Shoshoni,  Gosuite  and  Ute  in  the  early  part 
of  1889.  All  these  tribes  are  neighbors  of  the 


42       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

Paiutes  and  closely  akin.1  It  swept  through  many 
tribes  west  of  the  Rockies,  but  not  through  all,  then 
it  passed  rapidly  east  of  the  Rockies  into  the  plains, 
where  considerable  numbers  of  tribes  were  caught 
in  the  contagion.  All  together  thirty  or  thirty-five 
tribes  west  and  east  of  the  Rockies,  having  an 
aggregate  population  of  sixty  thousand  souls,  re- 
ceived the  new  religion.2  Some  of  these  were 
practically  unanimous  in  acceptance  of  the  new 
doctrine,  —  the  Paiute,  Shoshoni,  Arapaho,  Chey- 
enne, Caddo  and  Pawnee,  —  while  others,  as  the 
Comanche,  were  not  largely  affected  by  it.  About 
one-half  of  the  twenty-six  thousand  Sioux  took 
active  part  in  it,  and  their  dances  were  among  the 
wildest  of  all,  many  of  the  tribe  becoming  practi- 
cally crazy,  falling  as  if  dead  and  foaming  at  the 
mouth. 

The  only  controlling  influence  was  exerted  by 
the  Indian  agent,  who  usually  did  not  interfere, 
so  that  this  great  emotional  movement  followed  a 
natural  course  and  did  not  cease  until  it  had  com- 
pletely spent  its  fury.  It  is  now  largely  extinct, 
save  in  certain  tribes  in  Oklahoma  where  the  dance 
has  become  a  part  of  the  tribal  life. 

In  this  unique  development  of  Indian  faith  we 
have  a  revival  with  accompaniments  of  primitive 
simplicity.  Here  is  the  dance,  the  rhythm,  the 
trance,  the  vision,  the  ecstasy,  all  the  reflex  phe- 
nomena which  belong  to  primitive  savage  man. 

1  Fourteenth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  805. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  927. 


THE    INDIAN    GHOST-DANCE  43 

This  is  grotesque  and  debasing.  But  there  is  also 
mingled  with  it  much  that  is  beautiful  and  uplift- 
ing, and  of  which  no  man  should  speak  with  disre- 
spect. It  is  impossible  not  to  see  something  besides 
the  extraordinary  suggestibility  of  this  primitive 
race  in  the  picture  of  the  men  and  women  of  the 
Arapaho  flocking  to  Mr.  Mooney,  the  government 
representative,  on  his  return  from  the  country 
where  their  Messiah  lived,1  "  the  tears  rolling  down 
their  cheeks,  the  whole  body  violently  trembling 
from  stress  of  emotion  —  something  more  than  bald 
superstition  in  the  simple  trust  of  these  red  chil- 
dren, that  after  shaking  hands  with  one  who  had 
seen  the  Messiah  whom  they  would  never  see, 
they  might  be  enabled  in  trance  visions  to  catch 
a  glimpse  of  the  coming  glory."  It  is  one  more 
picture  of  natural  human  need  and  longing. 

A  warrior  of  the  Arapaho,  who  are  the  most 
spiritual  of  the  Indian  tribes,  said  to  Mr.  Mooney 
when  his  little  boy  died,  "  I  shall  not  shoot  any 
ponies,  and  my  wife  will  not  gash  her  arms.  We 
used  to  do  this  when  our  friends  died  because  we 
thought  we  would  never  see  them  again,  and  it 
made  us  feel  badly.  But  now  we  know  that  we 
shall  all  be  united  again."  As  among  the  Shakers, 
so  also  among  the  ghost-dancers,  emphasis  is  laid 
upon  the  reformed  life  with  respect  to  the  two 
great  Indian  vices,  drinking  and  gambling.  It  is 
evident  that  this  new  religion  had  in  it  two  dis- 
tinct elements,  which  may  be  dissociated,  and  which 

1  Fourteenth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  p.  778. 


44      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

have  no  part  or  parcel  one  with  the  other.  There 
is  the  barbaric  dance  and  the  cataleptic  vision,  but 
there  is  also  the  hope  of  immortality,  the  ethical 
uplift,  the  attempt  at  righteousness.  We  shall 
come  upon  these  diverse  elements  again  in  reli- 
gious revivals  among  peoples  long  civilized.  It 
should  be  as  easy  to  dissociate  them  there. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE    RELIGION    OF    THE   AMERICAN    NEGRO 

No  one  doubts,  I  suppose,  that  in  the  negro 
people,  whether  in  Africa  or  America,  we  have 
another  child  race.  The  old  slave  system  of  the 
Southland  snatched  the  ancestors  of  this  race  from 
savagery  only  one  or  two  hundred  years  ago.  A 
century  or  two  is  not  a  long  period  in  the  social 
evolution  of  any  people,  especially  one  whose 
early  abode  was  in  the  African  jungle  beneath  a 
tropic  sun.  And  so  we  would  expect  to  find 
among  the  masses  of  the  black  people,  as  we  do, 
many  clear  marks  of  their  inheritance.  Dense 
ignorance  and  superstition,  a  vivid  imagination, 
volatile  emotion,  a  weak  will  power,  small  sense  of 
morality,  are  universally  regarded  as  the  most 
prominent  traits  of  the  negro  in  those  sections  of 
the  country,  notably  some  parts  of  the  black  belt, 
where  he  appears  in  his  primitive  simplicity.  In 
other  parts  of  the  South,  where  the  influence  of 
real  education  has  been  at  work,  the  mental  and 
moral  character  of  great  numbers  of  the  blacks 
would  not  so  exactly  fit  this  description.  Both 
slavery  and  emancipation  days  have  brought  to 
them  ideal  and  aspiration.  The  culture  of  the 

45 


46 

white  race  has  been  imitated.  They  are  in  posses- 
sion of  much  of  what  may  be  spoken  of  as  the 
Anglo-Saxon  consciousness.  Many  members  of 
the  negro  race  have  shown  capacity  for  high 
thought  and  heroic  deed.  But  in  general  there 
has  not  yet  been  time  enough  for  more  than  a  su- 
perposition of  higher  elements  upon  their  inherited 
mental,  social,  and  religious  nature.  Of  true 
mental  development  in  the  race  as  a  race  there 
has  been  little.  Civilization  and  savagery  dwell 
side  by  side  in  the  same  spirit,  and  the  result  is 
often  flagrant  contradiction  in  thinking,  in  feeling, 
in  conduct.  According  to  the  chance  of  the  mo- 
ment, the  one  or  the  other  shows  itself  with  its 
appropriate  accompaniment  of  utterance  and  act. 
I  once  spent  part  of  an  August  evening  on  the  top 
of  Lookout  Mountain  in  the  northwestern  corner  of 
Georgia,  listening  with  a  company  of  friends  to  an 
old  hermit  darky's  account  of  his  religious  conver- 
sion. He  was  a  powerful  giant  of  a  black  man, 
sixty-seven  years  of  age,  a  recluse,  but  known 
favorably  by  the  dwellers  all  over  the  mountain. 
He  spoke  to  us  on  the  porch  of  our  hostess's  resi- 
dence, in  the  darkness,  with  only  a  flickering  light 
shining  in  his  face.  He  had  reached  the  climax 
of  the  recital,  was  in  a  considerable  state  of 
ecstasy,  and  was  very  anxiously  seeking  to  impress 
us  all  with  his  spiritual  experience,  when  suddenly 
his  dog  began  barking  furiously  just  behind  him 
and  utterly  broke  the  continuity  of  his  thought 
and  of  his  speech.  I  think  no  one  of  us  will  ever 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    AMERICAN    NEGRO        4/ 

forget  the  dash  of  savagery  that  came  into  his 
face  as  he  turned  with  flashing  eye  and  foaming 
lip  upon  that  canine  intruder.  It  was  a  startling 
transition,  revealing  the  crater  of  primitive  passion 
just  underneath  the  crust  of  religious  culture  and 
nurture. 

The  most  prominent  activity  of  the  negro  race 
in  America  is  religion.  Of  course  I  mean  religion 
of  a  certain  type,  which  can  only  be  understood 
when  viewed  historically  and  in  the  light  of  the 
mental  development  which  this  people  has  at- 
tained. A  little  time  ago,  comparatively  speak- 
ing, their  ancestors  were  practising  primitive 
rites  on  the  African  west  coast.  And  the  slave 
ships  brought  to  the  West  Indian  sugar  fields, 
and  to  the  Southern  states  ultimately,  a  people 
who  were  saturated  with  superstition.  Many 
accounts  have  been  written  of  negro  Voodooism 
which  have  no  doubt  been  much  exaggerated. 
Voodooism  was  a  cult  in  which  the  snake  was 
regarded  as  a  sacred  animal,  as  it  has  been  in 
various  parts  of  the  world.  It  is  a  phase  of  the 
animistic  faith  of  the  early  children  of  nature. 
It  seems  certain  that  this  rite,  among  others, 
existed  in  Hayti  in  early  slavery  times  and 
that  mixtures  of  Voodooism  and  other  rites  with 
Christianity  were  common  in  the  old  plantation 
days  in  the  South.  I  have  referred  before  to  the 
practice  of  charm  and  magic  so  well-nigh  univer- 
sal to-day  among  the  mass  of  the  black  race  in  the 
lower  Mississippi  Valley.  This  phenomenon  is 


48      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN "  RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

reflected  clearly  in  the  negro's  religious  experience 
—he  must  have  some  sign  of  conversion.  The  sun 
must  stand  still  at  the  moment  of  the  great  change, 
or  the  moon  must  exhibit  a  strange  transforma- 
tion of  color,  or  a  star  must  twinkle  in  a  peculiar 
way. 

The  childlikeness  of  their  conceptions,  even  in  a 
more  advanced  stage,  is  shown  in  the  growth  of 
such  a  sect  as  the  "  sheep-calling  Baptists "  in 
parts  of  Alabama,  with  whom  the  communion  is 
observed  two  hours  before  day.  They  meet  out 
in  the  woods  or  sometimes  in  the  church.  The 
people  gather  inside  and  then  disperse  among  the 
trees  and  the  bushes  outside.  The  preacher  dons 
his  robe,  and  in  the  character  of  a  shepherd  goes 
forth  to  gather  in  his  sheep.  "  Coo-oo  sheep ! 
Coo-oo-sh'p  —  Cooshy-coo-oo-sheep  !  "  he  calls, 
and  the  men  of  his  flock  from  their  place  in  the 
forest  answer,  "  Ba !  Ba !  "  and  the  women  from 
the  bushes  answer  likewise,  and  they  follow  him 
into  the  church.  They  employ  two  kinds  of  bread 
in  administering  the  sacrament,  —  the  black  bread 
for  the  outsider  who  is  "  not  of  this  fold  "  and  the 
white  bread  for  the  true  sheep. 

With  the  American  negro  the  church  is  the 
exclusive  social  centre,  and  in  the  South  practically 
every  man  and  woman  of  the  race  is  a  member  of 
the  church.  Thoroughly  religious  animal  as  he  is 
by  nature,  with  extraordinary  emotional  endow- 
ment added  thereto,  he  would  find  it  very  difficult 
to  withstand  the  almost  constant  tide  of  revival 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    AMERICAN    NEGRO        49 

that  sweeps  over  his  community.  Every  religious 
meeting  has  a  tendency  to  fall  at  once  into  the 
revival  form,  and  anyway  he  cannot  escape  those 
great  gatherings  of  the  country  people  at  camp- 
meeting  each  year  when  the  crops  are  "  laid 
by." 

The  negro  preacher  is  a  figure  of  singular  in- 
terest. The  descendant  of  the  medicine-man  of 
the  African  clan,  "  he  early  appeared  on  the  plan- 
tation and  found  his  function  as  the  healer  of  the 
sick,  the  interpreter  of  the  unknown,  the  com- 
forter of  the  sorrowing,  the  supernatural  avenger 
cf  wrong  and  the  one  who  rudely  but  picturesquely 
expressed  the  longing,  disappointment  and  resent- 
ment of  a  stolen  and  oppressed  people."1  He 
became  the  leader  in  the  early  quasi-Christian 
institutions  which  preceded  the  negro  churches, 
and  finally  the  pastor  of  the  regularly  organized 
societies.  Since  the  days  of  freedom,  the  colored 
preacher,  as  the  most  prominent  man  in  the  com- 
munity, has  often  been  not  only  the  spiritual 
leader,  but  the  political  boss,  the  idealist  on  the 
Sabbath,  the  very  practical  opportunist  during  the 
week,  whose  claims  to  morality,  either  political  or 
personal,  would  not  bear  minute  investigation.  Of 
course  I  am  speaking  not  of  the  city  pastors  of 
the  border  states,  where  are  to  be  found  cultivated, 
intelligent  and  thoroughly  moral  men  in  the  younger 
generation,  nor  would  the  representation  be  an 
accurate  one  if  applied  universally  anywhere,  but 

1  "  The  Souls  of  Black  Folk,"  Dubois,  p.  196. 

K 


5<D      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

there  is  no  doubt  about  the  type.  The  colored 
minister  has  been  the  social  radical,  proclaiming 
the  equality  of  the  races  according  to  the  Scriptures, 
always  the  emotional  orator  swaying  his  audiences 
at  will,  expounding  the  doctrines  of  depravity  and 
damnation  and  too  often  illustrating  them  in  his 
daily  practice,  appealing  to  the  instinctive  emotions 
of  fear  and  hate  as  well  as  love,  the  mourner,  the 
shouter,  the  visioner,  rioting  in  word  pictures,  his 
preaching  an  incoherent,  irrational  rhythmic 
ecstasy,  his  thinking  following  absolutely  the 
psychological  law  of  the  blending  of  mental 
images.  Here  is  a  primitive  man  with  primitive 
traits  in  a  modern  environment. 

And  the  religious  method  ?  Like  that  of  the 
Indian  ghost-dance,  emotional  and  hypnotic  to  the 
core.  The  sound  of  religious  music,  the  personality 
of  the  preacher,  are  like  tinder  to  the  nature  of  the 
black  man.  He  is  in  the  highest  degree  suggest- 
ible. 

I  once  attended  a  simple  "  experience  meetin' " 
of  black  people  in  Tennessee  in  which  these 
influences  were  very  visibly  at  work.  At  the  out- 
set the  interest  was  not  intense,  and  I  noted  several 
colored  people  on  the  fringe  of  the  crowd  sound 
asleep.  Testimony  flagged  a  little,  and  the 
leader  called  for  that  expression  of  tense  emo- 
tional excitement  known  among  the  negroes  as 
"mournin'."  One  speaker  was  floundering  in  a 
weltering  chaos  of  images  and  seemed  likely  to 
sink  without  anybody  to  rescue  him,  when  the 


THE    RELIGION    OF   THE    AMERICAN    NEGRO        $1 

leader  arose  and  with  animation  on  every  feature 
shouted  to  the  audience,  "  Mourn  him  up,  chillun  !  " 
And  the  audience  began  —  all  except  those  who 
were  asleep  —  at  first  soft  and  low,  but  rising 
higher  and  higher  until  they  fell  into  a  rhythm 
that  carried  everything  before  it,  including  the 
disciple  who  had  been  floundering  for  words  in 
which  to  phrase  his  religious  experience.  But  he 
had  no  trouble  longer.  Images  flashed  through 
his  mind  with  great  rapidity  and  found  quick 
expression  on  his  lips.  He  spoke  in  rhythm,  and 
the  audience  rhythmically  responded.  He  was 
speedily  in  full  movement,  head,  arms,  feet,  eyes, 
face,  and  soon  he  was  lost  in  ecstasy.  And  the 
contagion  swept  everything  before  it.  Even  the 
sound  sleepers  on  the  fringe  of  the  crowd  were 
caught  and  carried  into  the  movement  as  if  by  a 
tide  of  the  sea.  At  the  very  climax  of  the  meet- 
ing, a  woman  rose  to  her  feet,  moved  forward  to 
the  open  space  in  front  of  the  pulpit,  evidently 
under  the  compulsion  of  the  lyric  wave.  Having 
reached  the  front,  in  one  wild  burst  of  pent-up 
emotion,  she  fell  rigid  to  the  floor  and  lay  there 
motionless  during  the  rest  of  the  service.  She 
was  not  disturbed.  Like  the  devotees  of  the 
ghost-dance,  she,  too,  was  believed  to  be  enjoying 
visions  of  the  unseen  world. 

But  the  most  perfect  example  of  this  extraordi- 
nary suggestibility  of  the  colored  race  that  has 
ever  come  within  the  range  of  my  investigation  is 
one  that  I  am  now  about  to  relate.  I  would  not 


52       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

print  it  if  I  did  not  believe  it  to  be  absolutely  gen- 
uine. It  is  such  a  perfect  illustration  because  it 
dissociates  the  hypnotic  element  so  completely 
from  any  true  spiritual  element,  and  shows  the 
power  of  suggestion  in  its  nakedness.  In  a  little 
town  between  Cleveland,  Tennessee,  and  Chatta- 
nooga, it  was  the  purpose  to  give  a  donation  to  the 
colored  minister.  One  of  the  brethren  in  the  church 
volunteered  to  make  a  collection  of  the  offerings 
from  the  various  homes  of  the  members,  and  an 
old  colored  woman,  somewhat  well  to  do,  loaned 
her  cart  and  a  pair  of  steers  to  this  brother  to 
facilitate  the  gathering  of  the  donation  goods. 
After  he  had  been  throughout  the  neighborhood 
and  secured  a  reasonable  load  of  groceries,  provi- 
sions and  clothing,  he  drove  off  to  Chattanooga 
and  sold  everything,  including  the  cart  and  the 
steers,  pocketed  the  proceeds  and  departed  for 
Atlanta  on  a  visit  to  his  relatives.  Consternation 
and  then  indignation  reigned  supreme  in  the  home 
community  when  it  became  known  that  he  was 
gone.  After  some  time  the  culprit  drifted  back, 
in  deep  contrition,  but  having  spent  all.  Indig- 
nation once  more  arose  to  a  white  heat,  and 
it  was  determined  to  give  him  a  church  trial 
without  waiting  for  any  legal  formality.  The  day 
was  set,  the  meeting  was  crowded ;  the  preacher 
presided,  and  after  a  statement  of  the  charges, 
announced  that  the  accused  would  be  given  a 
chance  to  be  heard.  He  went  forward  and  took 
the  place  of  the  preacher  on  the  platform.  "  I 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE    AMERICAN    NEGRO        53 

ain't  got  nuffin  to  say  fo'  myse'f,"  he  began  in  a 
penitent  voice,  "  I'se  a  po'  mis'able  sinner.  But, 
bredren,  so  is  we  all  mis'able  sinners.  An'  de 
good  book  says  we  must  fergib.  How  many 
times,  bredren  ?  Till  seven  times  ?  No,  till  sev- 
enty times  seven.  An'  I  ain't  sinned  no  seventy 
times  seven,  and  I'm  jes'  go'  to  sugges'  dat  we 
turn  dis  into  a  fergibness  meetin',  an'  ebery- 
body  in  dis  great  comp'ny  dat  is  willin'  to  fer- 
gib me,  come  up  now,  while  we  sing  one  of  our 
deah  ole  hymns,  and  shake  ma  hand."  And  he 
started  one  of  the  powerful  revival  tunes,  and  they 
began  to  come,  first  those  who  hadn't  given  any- 
thing to  the  donation  and  were  not  much  inter- 
ested in  the  matter  anyway,  then  those  who 
hadn't  lost  much,  and  then  the  others.  Finally 
they  had  all  passed  before  him  except  one,  and 
she  stuck  to  her  seat.  And  he  said,  "  Dar's 
one  po'  mis'able  sinner  still  lef,  dat  won't  fer- 
gib, she  won't  fergib."  (She  was  the  old  lady 
who  lost  the  steers.)  "Now  I  sugges'  that  we 
hab  a  season  ob  prayer,  an'  gib  dis  po'  ole 
sinner  one  mo'  chance."  And  after  they  had 
prayed  and  sung  a  hymn,  the  old  lady  came  up, 
too! 

At  many  of  the  "big  quarterlies  "  and  the  '*  pro- 
tracted meetin's "  which  are  held  in  the  South, 
there  are  scenes  of  frenzy,  of  human  passion,  of 
collapse,  of  catalepsy,  of  foaming  at  the  mouth,  of 
convulsion,  of  total  loss  of  inhibition,  compared 
with  the  scorching  heat  of  which  the  Indian  ghost- 


54      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

dance  seems  at  times  only  a  pale  moon.  To  be 
"mad  with  supernatural  joy"1  is  with  the  negro 
the  great  test  of  supernatural  presence.  The  in- 
fluence of  the  demon  worship  of  his  ancestors  in 
the  African  forest  is  still  interwoven  with  the 
mental  prepossessions  and  the  nervous  organiza- 
tion of  the  race. 

There  are  a  few  of  the  primitive  phenomena 
which  particularly  distinguish  the  religion  of  the 
negro  so  interesting  as  to  warrant  our  observing 
them  a  little  more  closely.  The  group  of  motor 
manifestations,  the  rhythm,  the  shout,  the  "falling 
out,"  are  exceedingly  characteristic.  High  feeling, 
discharging  itself  in  muscular  action,  and  discharg- 
ing itself  rhythmically,  is  everywhere  a  spontane- 
ous manifestation  of  children  and  of  child  races.2 
If  this  feeling  discharges  itself  through  the  muscles 
of  the  vocal  organs,  we  have  the  shout.  If  through 
the  feet,  we  have  the  dance.  The  sacred  dance 
is,  of  course,  not  so  common  among  the  negroes  as 
among  the  Indians.  But  it  is  quite  common.  I  have 
had  several  instances  of  it  brought  to  my  attention. 
There  is  a  small  sect  near  Granada,  Mississippi, 
who  sing  and  preach  and  dance  in  turn.  A  cor- 
respondent writes  me  that  there  is  a  church  near 
Appomattox  in  which  great  preparations  are  made 
for  the  revival  every  September.  Certain  of  the 
membership  are  specially  trained  for  the  "  flower 
dance,"  which  takes  place  in  the  church  and  is  not 

1  "  The  Souls  of  Black  Folk,"  Bubo's. 

fl  Cf.  Spencer,  "  Principles  of  Sociology"  (2-1),  p.  17  f. 


THE    RELIGION    OF   THE    AMERICAN    NEGRO        55 

very  unlike  the  red-Indian  variety  in  its  form  and 
in  its  effect.  In  the  country  districts  of  Alabama 
we  hear  of  the  "  roper  dance,"  which  consists  of 
an  excited  embrace  of  the  sexes  followed  by  a 
march  around  a  central  figure  who  claps  his  hands 
and  shouts  vociferously.  My  informant  avers  that 
this  procedure  takes  place  at  the  close  of  the  meet- 
ing, and  in  many  cases  results  in  gross  immorality. 
The  Primitive  Orthodox  Zion  Baptist  Church  at 
Yamassee,  Florida,  holds  a  "  Rocking  Daniel " 
dance  at  the  close  of  the  communion  service. 
The  membership  forms  a  circle  in  front  of  the 
pulpit,  in  the  centre  of  which  the  leader  stands. 
They  move  around  the  leader  in  single  file,  singing 
"  Rock  Daniel,  rock  Daniel,  rock  Daniel  till  I  die." 
Then  they  fall  into  regular  step  and  gesticulate  and 
shout  till  exhaustion  intervenes.1 

No  one  who  has  listened  to  a  typical  negro 
preacher  or  a  typical  negro  congregation  has  failed 
to  observe  the  rhythmic  cadence  into  which  they 
unconsciously  drop.  Rhythm  is  the  line  of  least 
resistance  for  high  emotion.  A  change  in  tone 
level  is  a  rest  to  the  muscles  which  are  producing 
the  vociferous  effects.  The  same  phenomenon 
has  appeared  among  the  Hard  Shell  Baptists,  the 
Friends  and  the  early  Methodists,  and  has  always 
the  same  significance. 

When  the  emotion  is  very  violent,  muscle  con- 
traction becomes  abnormal  and  we  have  the  phe- 
nomenon of  "falling  out."  This  circumstance  is 

1  "The  Negro  Church,  a  Social  Study,"  p.  67. 


56      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

held  by  probably  the  major  part  of  religious 
colored  people  as  the  clearest  evidence  of  divine 
grace  and  conversion.  It  used  always  to  be  a  nec- 
essary attestation  of  the  "  call  to  preach."  Booker 
T.  Washington  in  his  autobiography  describes  the 
process  as  it  took  place  in  his  early  home  in  West 
Virginia.  "  Usually  the  call  came  when  the  indi- 
vidual was  sitting  in  church.  Without  warning 
he  would  fall  upon  the  floor  as  if  struck  by  a 
bullet,  and  would  lie  there  for  hours,  speechless 
and  motionless.  If  he  were  inclined  to  resist  the 
summons,  he  would  fall  a  second  or  third  time. 
In  the  end  he  always  yielded  to  the  '  call.'  "  This 
of  course  fostered  a  tendency  to  the  oversupply  of 
ministers.  Mr.  Washington  speaks  of  one  church 
with  which  he  was  acquainted  which  had  a  total 
membership  of  about  two  hundred,  eighteen  of 
whom  were  regular  preachers.  One  of  the  surest 
evidences  of  the  growth  of  intelligence,  civiliza- 
tion and  good  sense  among  the  blacks  is  the  con- 
siderable decline  in  the  number  of  those  who  are 
thus  "  called  to  preach."  Under  the  influence  of 
education  and  enlightenment,  the  grade  of  ministers 
is  steadily  changing  for  the  better.  But  the  great 
majority  of  the  older  and  the  untrained  men  still 
depend  upon  mere  noise  and  hypnotic  excitement 
for  the  conversion  of  their  hearers.  Anything  else 
with  them  is  degeneration.  "  It's  all  booklarnin',  " 
they  say,  "dey  ain't  no  Holy  Ghos'  in  it  at  all." 

In  the  earlier  days  fasting  among  the  negroes 
was   a   common  custom  precedent  to  conversion. 


THE    RELIGION    OF    THE   AMERICAN    NEGRO        57 

Dr.  Charles  T.  Walker  of  New  York  City,  a  dis- 
tinguished preacher  of  the  colored  race,  known  as 
the  "black  Spurgeon,"  a  man  of  intelligence  and 
cultivation,  assures  me  of  this,  and  once  described 
to  me  his  own  experience.  The  incident  is  also 
related  in  his  biography.  On  Wednesday  of  a 
certain  week  in  the  month  of  June  while  he  was 
hoeing  cotton  he  decided  to  become  a  "  seeker." 
He  followed  the  usual  custom.  When  he  reached 
the  end  of  the  row,  without  saying  a  word  to  any- 
body, he  jumped  over  the  fence  and  went  into  the 
woods.  Without  eating  or  drinking,  without  see- 
ing any  one,  he  remained  in  the  woods  until  the 
following  Saturday  afternoon,  when  he  was  "  hap- 
pily converted."  The  custom  of  fasting,  as  many 
know,  has  a  primitive  origin  and  is  very  widespread. 
It  was  not  an  invention.  It  was  often  a  grim  ne- 
cessity. But  the  hunger  of  the  savage  brought  him 
vivid  dreams  and  visions,  seemed  to  give  preter- 
natural acuteness  to  his  spirit.  And  then  fasting 
grew  to  be  an  institution.  The  Indian  boy  regu- 
larly fasts  about  the  age  of  puberty.  He  goes  off 
into  the  forest,  as  young  Walker  did,  until  his 
vision  comes.  Whatever  then  appears  to  him  is 
his  supernatural  friend,  his  Manitou.  Of  course 
the  abnormal  mental  excitement  is  caused  primarily 
by  the  lack  of  food,  but  everywhere  among  primi- 
tive peoples  it  is  ascribed  to  a  possessing  divinity.1 
A  very  certain  though  unsavory  bit  of  evidence 
of  the  negro's  primitive  state  is  found  in  the  great 

1  Cf.  Spencer,  "  Principles  of  Sociology"  (i-i),  p.  239  f. 


$8       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

gulf  still  fixed  in  his  consciousness  between  religion 
and  morality.  Average  ecclesiastical  leadership 
is  not  yet  skilful  enough  safely  to  bridge  the  abyss. 
It  was  only  recently  that  the  following  was  pub- 
lished in  a  Southern  newspaper  over  a  negro  bishop's 
name.1  "  But  through  His  death  and  resurrection 
we  may  commit  sins  of  lying,  stealing,  Sabbath 
breaking,  getting  drunk,  gambling,  whoring,  mur- 
dering and  every  species  of  villany,  and  then  come 
to  God  through  our  resurrected  Christ  and  enter 
heaven  in  the  end." 

This  great  gulf  is  revealed  especially  by  the 
absence  of  sexual  virtue  to  so  marked  a  degree, 
and  by  the  overpowering  propensity  to  petty  theft. 
The  wide  prevalence  of  the  crime  of  lynching 
among  the  whites  of  the  South  testifies  eloquently 
to  the  reign  of  lust  among  the  blacks,  and  as  for 
petty  thieving,  it  is  so  common  as  often  to  excite 
only  humorous  comment.  A  colored  house-girl, 
"  seeking  religion  "  under  the  guidance  of  a  colored 
"mother  in  the  gospel,"  will  abstract  a  pound  of 
butter  from  the  day's  churning  of  her  employer, 
and  carry  it  as  a  compensation  to  her  "  mother  " 
for  helping  her  to  "come  through,"  without  a 
glimmering  of  the  real  nature  of  her  act.  This 
appears  to  be  unmorality  rather  than  immorality. 
Long  ago  the  great  Englishman  Jowett  spoke  of 
the  "  ages  before  morality,"  by  which  he  meant 
the  time  when  ethics  in  the  modern  sense  of  the 
relation  of  man  to  man  was  not  born,  although 

1  Cf.  The  Outlook,  July  30,  1904,  p.  745. 


THE    RELIGION    OF   THE    AMERICAN    NEGRO        59 

religion  was  born  and  was  flourishing.  And  the 
negro  still  lives  in  those  ages,  and  has  the  unde- 
veloped ethical  sense. 

I  have  been  speaking  of  the  American  negro 
type,  and  not  of  all  negroes.  Wherever  the 
influence  of  Hampton  and  Tuskegee  and  other 
institutions  has  permeated,  the  leaven  is  at  work 
that  will  some  day  no  doubt  regenerate  the  whole 
lump.  There  is  something  intrinsically  noble,  in  a 
race  which  has  manifested  such  an  original  genius 
for  beautiful  music.  Nothing  like  it  has  appeared 
in  any  other  population  element  on  American  soil. 


• 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN   KENTUCKY    IN    l8OO 

ONE  of  the  most  famous  of  the  religious  revivals 
in  America  occurred  in  the  state  of  Kentucky  in 
and  about  the  year  1800,  among  a  population  pre- 
dominantly Scotch-Irish.  More  than  half  a  cen- 
tury afterwards,  in  1859,  a  similar  movement  took 
place  in  the  original  home  of  this  population  in  the 
north  of  Ireland.  The  object  of  discussing  the  two 
movements  in  successive  chapters  is  to  set  side  by 
side  some  points  of  likeness  and  some  of  contrast. 
The  Scotch-Irish  were  a  mixed  people  in  the  north 
of  Ireland,  as  their  name  indicates.  The  large 
influx  of  Lowland  Scotch  in  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury was  decisive  in  fixing  their  ethical  and  religious 
character.  But  in  their  blood  from  ancient  time 
was  both  the  Teutonic  and  the  Celtic  strain.  Long 
before  the  Anglo-Saxon  invasion  of  Britain,  long 
before  the  Roman  invasion,  a  very  early  wave  of 
Teutonic  migration  had  swept  across  the  North 
Sea,  through  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  and  into 
the  north  and  east  of  Ireland.  And  in  their  char- 
acter the  Scotch-Irish  combine  the  shrewd,  prac- 
tical common  sense  and  intelligent  purpose  of  the 
Teuton  with  the  strong  emotionalism  of  the  Celt, 
and  the  former  element  has  been  held  to  predomi- 

60 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    KENTUCKY    IN     iSOO      6 1 

nate  on  their  native  heath.  On  the  whole  they  have 
probably  shown  a  superior  intelligence  when  com- 
pared with  their  fellow-countrymen  to  the  south. 
They  have  been  less  superstitious.  They  have  been 
better  trained  educationally  than  the  rest  of  the  Irish 
people.  They  have  been  Protestant  to  the  core  and 
have  shown  an  amazing  fondness  for  theological  ar- 
gument. It  is  of  them  that  one  of  their  pure  Celtic 
countrymen  wittily  remarked  that  when  the  potato 
crop  failed,  they  lived  on  the  shorter  catechism. 

During  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
these  people  began  coming  to  America  in  consider- 
able numbers.  Most  of  them  entered  at  the  port  of 
Philadelphia  and  worked  slowly  down  the  long  val- 
leys of  the  Appalachian  Mountains  into  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee.  Many  of  them,  however,  entered 
at  the  port  of  Charleston.  Long  before,  the  low- 
lands of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  had  been  occu- 
pied by  the  Cavalier  planters,  and  the  Scotch-Irish 
immigrants  passed  on  to  the  higher  ground  in  the 
back  country,  and  ultimately  over  the  Blue  Ridge 
into  the  rich  valleys  of  the  Green  River,  the  Ten- 
nessee and  the  Cumberland.  These  two  branches 
of  the  same  stock  came  together  on  this  border- 
land, "took  root  and  flourished,  stretching  in  a 
broad  belt  from  north  to  south,  a  shield  of  sinewy 
men  thrust  in  between  the  people  of  the  seaboard 
and  the  red  warriors  of  the  wilderness."  l 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  men  who  came 
voluntarily  from  the  north  of  Ireland,  or  from  any- 

1  Roosevelt,  "  Winning  of  the  West,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  104,  105. 


62       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

where  in  the  Old  World  during  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries,  were  usually  the  result  of  a  fine 
process  of  selection.  They  were  the  independent, 
the  hardy,  the  adventurous.  Very  often  in  the 
study  which  we  have  before  us,  these  people  will  not 
appear  at  their  best.  .Swept  away  on  a  great  tide 
of  emotion,  they  do  not  exhibit  some  of  their  higher 
qualities.  All  the  more  on  this  account  do  I  pause 
for  a  word  of  appreciation  of  this  magnificent 
strain  in  the  nation's  blood.  The  descendants  of 
these  people  have  done  much  for  America,  and 
will  do  more  when  the  millions  of  their  belated  kin 
in  the  Southern  mountains  are  brought  under  the 
influence  of  twentieth-century  enlightenment  and 
culture.  For  what  they  have  already  done  they 
deserve  a  statue  in  the  nation's  hall  of  fame  with 
the  Huguenot,  the  Hollander,  the  Cavalier  and  the 
Puritan.  In  those  early  days  they  showed  not  only 
a  daring  but  a  capacity  for  progress  that  are  be- 
yond eulogy.  These  were  the  men  who  "  long 
before  the  first  Continental  Congress  had  assem- 
bled had  lost  all  remembrance  of  Europe  and  all 
sympathy  with  things  European,  and  had  become 
Americans  in  speech,  thought  and  character," 1 
who  were  the  first  to  declare  for  independence, 
and  who,  in  the  war  of  1812,  saw  more  clearly 
than  New  England  the  necessity  of  the  struggle, 
and  were  for  it,  through  and  through,  when  New 
England  held  back  because  of  commercial  interest 
and  unpatriotic  sloth.  The  decisive  victory  of 

1  Roosevelt,  "  Winning  of  the  West,"  Vol.  I,  p.  108. 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    KENTUCKY    IN    l8OO      63 

General  Jackson  of  New  Orleans  was  largely  won 
by  the  few  hundred  clear-eyed,  straight-shooting, 
backwoods  riflemen  from  Tennessee.  And  the 
fact  that  the  very  heart  of  American  democracy 
beats  to-day  in  the  great  central  west  is  partly  due 
to  the  sane  instinct  and  the  moral  stamina  of  these 
Scotch-Irish  pioneers. 

It  is  possible  to  form  a  rather  definite  notion  of 
their  type  of  mind  about  the  year  1800.  They 
were  already  quite  different  in  many  respects  from 
their  kinsmen  remaining  in  the  north  of  Ireland. 
In  the  first  place  they  were  a  selected  population, 
fitted  for  a  border  life,,  and  their  forceful  motor 
traits  appeared  in  their  children.  The  new  en- 
vironment, too,  had  'put  its  stamp  upon  them. 
There  was  necessarily  some  disintegration  of 
intellectual  elements.  The  professional  classes, 
who  at  home  were  great  centres  of  self-control, 
were  comparatively  few  in  number  in  this  pioneer 
community.  These  people  were  in  a  new,  wild 
country,  where  neither  conventionality  nor  law  held 
its  accustomed  sway.  The  rational  restraints  q£_ 
religion  were  many  and  strong  in  their  native 
land,  but  were  largely  absent  in  the  wilderness. 
They  came  to  live  more  and  more  in  what  they 
knew  to  be  open  violation  of  the  law  of  their  own 
consciences,  and  of  that  stern  but  strongly  ethical 
religion  in  which  they  and  their  forefathers  who 
followed  Knox  and  Calvin  had  been  reared. 
Furthermore,  the  circumstances  of  their  daily 
living  developed  in  them  a  quick  response  to 


64       PRIMITIVE   TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

stimulus.  They  were  obliged  to  be  ever  on  the 
alert  against  attacking  savages.  And  the  slightest 
alarm  would  bring  together  every  man  and  boy  in 
the  settlement  who  could  use  a  rifle  in  defence  of 
the  women  and  the  children.  They  lived  in  an 
environment  of  fear,  though  they  were  of  such 
sturdy  stuff  that  they  grew  in  the  very  midst  of  it 
to  be  utterly  fearless  and  even  reckless  of  danger 
that  they  could  understand  and  measure.  Never— 
theless,  the  new  experience  of  rational  inhibitions 
removed,  of  a  strange  and  dangerous  environment, 
developed  in  them  to  a  high  degree  the  motor  and 
emotional  tendencies  which  were  already  in  the 
blood  of  their  kind.  The  primitive  surroundings 
once  more  fanned  into  flame  the  primitive  traits. 
They  were  not  only  a  sturdier  but  a  far  more 
excitable  and  sanguine  population  in  1800  than 
their  brethren  in  the  north  of  Ireland,  and  when 
at  last  there  was  brought  to' bear  upon  them  in  the 
course  of  events  that  most  powerful  species  of 
psychological  "  crowd,"  a  protracted  religious 
camp-meeting,  and  they  were  suddenly  halted  and 
aroused  by  the  most  fervid,  imaginative  and  reitera- 
tive appeals  to  a  sense  of  their  apostasy  and  their 
everlasting  doom  if  they  should  not  repent,  there 
resulted  as  perfect  a  combination  of  conditions  for 
the  propagation  of  influence  by  imitation  and  the 
production  of  nervous  and  mental  infection  as  the 
world  has  ever  seen.1 

The  emotional  epidemic  attained  greater  violence, 

1  Cf.  Bacon,  "  History  of  American  Christianity,"  p.  238. 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    KENTUCKY    IN    l8OO      6$ 

also,  because  in  this  population  there  was  still 
another  important  class  that  we  have  not  yet  men- 
tioned. The  vehemence  of  any  form  of  impulsive 
social  action  is  always  increased  by  the  presence 
of  a  relatively  large  number  of  the  criminal  and 
degenerate  type  in  a  community.  And  the  border 
had  very  many  of  this  class  in  the  pioneer  days. 
"  There  was  a  large  influx  of  people  drawn  from 
the  worst  immigrants  that  perhaps  were  ever 
brought  to  America,  the  mass  of  convict  servants, 
redemptioners  and  the  like  who  formed  such  an 
excessively  undesirable  substratum  to  the  otherwise 
excellent  population  of  the  tide-water  regions  in 
Virginia  and  the  Carolinas.  Many  of  the  Southern 
crackers,  or  poor  whites,  sprang  from  this  class, 
which  also  in  the  backwoods  gave  birth  to  gen- 
erations of  violent  and  hardened  criminals  and  to 
an  even  greater  number  of  shiftless,  lazy,  cowardly 
cumberers  of  the  earth's  surface."  l  The  presence 
of  this  stratum  in  the  Kentucky  revivals  was  very 
often  alarmingly  and  dramatically  evident  in  the 
attacks  of  mobs  upon  the  religious  camp-meetings, 
which  were  so  often  repulsed  under  the  vigorous 
leadership  of  such  magnificent  physical  and  moral 
specimens  of  the  backwoods  preacher  as  Peter 
Cartwright  and  Finis  Ewing.2  And  it  is  interest- 
ing, too,  to  observe  how  often  individuals  of  this 
same  stratum  were  the  first  to  be  laid  low  by 
the  sturdy  spiritual  blows  struck  later  by  these 

1  Roosevelt,  "Winning  of  the  West,"  Vol.  I,  p.  130. 
*  Cf.  "  Autobiography  "  of  Cartwright,  p.  90  f. 

r 


66      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

stalwart  champions  of  a  better  order  and  a  better 
life.1 

The  propagating  centre  of  the  revival  of  1800  was 
Logan  County  in  southwestern  Kentucky,  in  what 
was  then  known  as  the  Cumberland  country.  The 
settlements  extended  from  the  Green  River  on  the 
north  to  a  point  in  Tennessee  south  of  the  Cumber- 
land. The  country  was  beautiful,  the  climate 
salubrious,  the  soil  fertile,  and,  as  we  have  remarked, 
families  and  individuals  were  constantly  on  the 
march  from  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  as  well 
as  from  other  parts  of  the  Union,  to  make  their 
abode  in  this  fair  Cumberland  region.  So  far  as 
religious  belief  is  concerned,  the  Presbyterian 
body  was  altogether  the  most  numerous  in  this 
whole  section  by  1800.  The  pioneer  preachers 
who  initiated  the  revival  and  the  camp-meeting 
were  Presbyterians,  with  one  important  excep- 
tion. The  beginnings  of  the  movement  were 
among  the  people  and  within  the  bounds  of  the 
Transylvania  presbytery  and  the  synod  of  Ken- 
tucky. The  tendency  to  revivalism  was  hotly 
opposed  by  the  majority  of  the  synod,  and  even- 
tually some  of  the  leaders  of  the  movement  were 
disciplined  for  alleged  laxity  of  doctrine  and  of 
practice. 

This  warm  evangelistic  temper  appeared  with  the 
Rev.  James  McGready  and  others  from  the  Caro- 

1  "Autobiography"  of  Cartwright,  p.  126:  "On  Sunday  night, 
when  such  a  tremendous  power  fell  on  the  congregation,  my  gang 
of  rowdies  fell  by  dozens  on  the  right  and  left." 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    KENTUCKY    IN    l8OO      67 

linas  and  Virginia,  and  can  be  traced,  I  think,  to 
the  ministrations  of  Whitefield  in  those  parts  about 
the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  Rev. 
James  McGready  came  from  North  Carolina  to 
Logan  County  in  1796.  His  doctrine  was  a  modi- 
fied Calvinism.  He  dwelt  upon  the  necessity  of  the 
new  birth  and  the  importance  of  knowing  the  time 
when  and  the  place  where  the  conversion  had  oc- 
curred. This  was  a  new  note  in  the  Presbyterian 
denomination  in  that  section  of  the  world.1  But 
there  was  another  note  in  the  gamut  of  his  elo- 
quence that  was  not  new.  In  New  England  under 
Edwards,  and  in  Old  England  under  Wesley,  it  had 
sounded  forth  clear  and  strong  and  terrible  in  fear- 
ful denunciation  of  the  wrath  of  God  upon  impeni- 
tent sinners.  A  friend  of  McGready  2  said  of  him 
that  he  would  so  array  hell  before  the  wicked 
that  they  would  tremble  and  quake,  imagining  a 
lake  of  fire  and  brimstone  yawning  to  overwhelm 
them  and  the  hand  of  the  Almighty  thrusting  them 
down  the  horrible  abyss.  And  it  is  also  recorded 
of  him  that  "  the  fierceness  of  his  invective  derived 
additional  terror  from  the  hideousness  of  his  visage 
and  the  thunder  of  his  tones."3  Because  of  his 
remarkable  objurgatory  talent  he  was  strongly 

1  Cf.  Crisman,  "  Origin  and  Doctrines  of  the  Cumberland  Presby- 
terian Church,"  p.  26. 

'  Rev.  William  Barnett.  Cf.  "  Life  and  Times  of  Finis  Ewing," 
'Cossitt,  1853. 

8  Davidson,  "  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Kentucky," 
p.  132. 


68       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

urged  through  the  medium  of  a  letter  written  in 
blood  to  leave  North  Carolina.  He  did  shake  the 
dust  of  that  locality  from  his  feet  —  not  necessarily 
from  fear,  however,  but  rather  because  some  of  his 
former  hearers  had  moved  on  to  the  Cumberland 
country  and  invited  him  to  join  them  in  that  land 
flowing  with  milk  and  honey.  He  became  the  min- 
ister of  three  small  congregations  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  —  Gasper  River,  Muddy  River  and 
Red  River  societies.  He  was  now  in  an  environ- 
ment in  many  ways  suited  to  his  peculiar  type  of 
ability,  and  in  many  ways  deserving,  too,  his  mes- 
sage of  doom.  For  Logan  County  was  an  ugly 
community.  Peter  Cartwright  tells  us  that  when 
his  father  moved  there  in  1793,  it  had  the  rather 
unpleasant  appellation  of  "  Rogues'  Harbor  "  be- 
cause of  the  fact  that  an  actual  majority  of  the 
citizens  was  made  up  of  murderers,  horse-thieves, 
highway  robbers  and  counterfeiters,  fugitive  bond- 
servants and  runaway  debtors,  who  fled  there  from 
all  parts  of  the  Union  to  escape  the  clutches  of  the 
law.  If  these  wretches  were  ever  brought  to  trial, 
they  either  swore  each  other  clear  or  escaped  any 
penalty  because  of  the  lax  enforcement  of  justice. 
It  became  a  necessity  for  the  better  portion  of  the 
citizens  to  unite  in  a  quasi-lynching  organization 
known  as  "  The  Regulators."  Pitched  battles  were 
fought  with  the  "rogues,"  who  at  first  won,  but  were 
ultimately  beaten  and  driven  to  cover.  And  even 
among  the  law-abiding  people  there  was  a  great 
deal  of  irreligion,  as  well  as  drunkenness  and  other 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    KENTUCKY    IN    I  SCO      69 

forms  of  vice.  As  soon  as  McGready  arrived  in 
the  midst  of  this  modern  Sodom,  a  transformation 
began.  He  was  terribly  in  earnest,  and  his  pres- 
ence and  his  preaching  immediately  brought  his 
own  members,  at  least,  to  the  same  frame  of  mind. 
It  was  said  that  if  you  came  anywhere  upon  a 
crowd  of  McGready's  older  people,  they  were 
weeping  and  talking  about  their  souls.  And  if 
you  encountered  his  young  people,  either  singly  or 
in  groups,  it  was  the  same.  They  spoke  only  of 
the  need  of  the  soul's  salvation.1  In  1797  there 
arose  a  little  cloud  like  a  man's  hand.  In  1798 
the  heaven  was  black  with  clouds  and  wind,  the 
chief  apparent  cause  being  McGready's  thunderous 
personality.  His  reputation  attracted  great  crowds 
to  all  the  services  and  gave  his  meetings  fame  far 
and  wide.  And  so  it  happened  that  in  the  summer 
of  1799  two  McGee  brothers,  William,  a  Presby- 
terian, and  John,  a  Methodist,  when  crossing  the 
pine  barrens  into  Ohio,  determined  to  turn  aside 
and  visit  a  sacramental  solemnity  at  Red  River, 
that  they  might  observe  for  themselves  the  re- 
markable power  and  influence  that  everywhere 
attended  the  ministry  of  this  pulpit  Boanerges. 
What  they  actually  happened  upon  that  day,  and 
furthered  by  their  presence,  was  the  beginning  of 
one  of  the  most  tremendous  religious  revivals  in 
modern  history.  In  narrating  the  occurrences  of 
this  occasion  I  am  following  a  letter  written  in  1820 

1  McDonnold,  "  History  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church." 
p.  12. 


7O      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

by  John  McGee.1  I  do  this  because,  while  there 
is  no  important  variation  in  the  historical  accounts, 
there  is  some  slight  difference  of  detail,  and  the 
testimony  of  an  eye-witness  and  participant  is 
therefore  particularly  valuable.  Several  preachers 
spoke.  First  John  McGee,  the  Methodist,  and 
never,  as  he  says  himself,  did  he  preach  with  more 
light  and  liberty.  Then  his  Presbyterian  brother 
and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hodge  spoke  with  much  anima- 
tion and  power.  While  the  latter  was  discoursing, 
a  woman  in  the  east  end  of  the  house,  unable  to 
repress  the  violence  of  her  emotions,  gave  vent  to 
them  with  shoutings  loud  and  long.  At  the  close 
of  the  sermon  the  other  ministers  went  out,  but  the 
two  McGees  and  the  people  seemed  loath  to  depart. 
"  William  felt  such  a  power  come  over  him  that  he 
quit  his  seat  and  sat  down  on  the  floor  of  the  pulpit, 
I  suppose  not  knowing  zv/iat  he  did.  A  power 
which  caused  me  to  tremble  was  upon  me.  There 
was  a  solemn  weeping  all  over  the  house.  At 
length  I  rose  up  and  exhorted  them  to  let  the 
Lord  God  Omnipotent  reign  in  their  hearts,  and 
submit  to  Him,  and  their  souls  should  live. 
Many  broke  silence.  The  woman  in  the  east 
end  of  the  house  shouted  tremendously.  I  left 
the  pulpit  and  went  through  the  audience  shout- 
ing and  exhorting  with  all  possible  ecstasy  and 
energy,  and  the  floor  was  soon  covered  with  the 
slain." 

1  To  Thomas  L.  Douglas,  presiding  elder  of  Nashville  District, 
Tennessee  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    KENTUCKY    IN    l8OO      7 1 

The  little  cloud  no  larger  than  a  man's  hand  had 
filled  the  heavens  with  blackness,  and  now  came 
the  great  rain.  Or,  to  change  the  metaphor,  the 
people  from  this  Red  River  sacramental  service 
were  like  fire  in  dry  stubble  among  their  neigh- 
bors. Upon  the  return  home,  "they  rushed  into 
the  arms  of  their  friends,  shouting  and  telling  what 
wonderful  things  God  had  done  for  their  souls." 1 
Elder  B.  W.  Stone,  of  a  congregation  in  Bourbon 
County,  came  not  long  after  to  the  scene  of  this 
remarkable  religious  excitement  and  carried  the 
fire  to  the  Cane  Ridge  country,  where  it  blazed 
with  a  fury  unequalled  in  any  other  section.  From 
there  it  spread  to  Ohio  and  into  Washington 
County,  Pennsylvania,  where  derangement  of  the 
nervous  system  and  loss  of  physical  strength  were 
common  phenomena.  Foote's  history  of  North 
Carolina  and  of  Virginia  is  full  of  thrilling  accounts 
of  revival  fires  lighted  by  people  who  returned 
from  McGready's  meetings.  While  in  the  Cum- 
berland country  itself,  no  opposition,  no  criticism, 
could  for  a  long  period  allay  the  excitement  in  the 
least.  From  the  Green  River  to  the  Cumberland, 
the  settlements  were  full  of  religious  fervor  and 
revival  zeal.  From  distances  of  forty,  fifty  and 
one  hundred  miles  men  came  with  their  families 
in  covered  wagons,  provided  with  food  and  bed- 
ding, to  listen  to  this  group  of  evangelists  who  had 
so  stirred  the  congregation  at  the  Red  River  sacra- 

1  McDonnold,  "  History  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian 
Church,"  p.  13. 


72       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

ment.  And  thus  originated  what  is  known  as  the 
first  camp-meeting  in  America  at  the  Gasper  River 

church  in  the  summer  of  1800.     It  certainly  is  the 

i  j 

first  known  to  fame,  though  it  is  possible  that  this 
extension  of  the  pioneer  Presbyterian  sacramental 
service  into  several  days'  duration  in  the  open  air 
was  an  imitation  of  the  quarterly  circuit  meeting 
of  the  early  Methodists  which  for  twenty  years  had 
been  common  in  America,  in  Kentucky,  Tennessee 
and  Ohio.  If  not  an  imitation,  it  certainly  was  a 
growth  from  the  same  root  of  necessity.  McGready 
had  advertised  this  Gasper  River  meeting  as  widely 
as  he  could,  and  a  great  concourse  assembled. 
The  little  church  was  far  too  small,  and  the  neigh- 
boring forest  was  occupied  as  a  temple.  Tl^e 
woodsmen  worshippers,  with  their  accustomed  fe^- 
tility  of  resource,  were  ready  for  this  emergency. 
They  cleared  away  the  underbrush  and  felled  the 
pine  trees  for  pews.  They  improvised  a  platform 
for  the  speakers,  and  the  wild  woods,  which  early 
in  the  day  had  rung  with  the  sound  of  their  axes, 
later  in  the  day  rang  with  shout  and  song.  They 
had  not  planned  to  remain  longer  than  the  even- 
ing. But  when  night  came  they  were  far  from 
surfeited  with  religious  zeal.  The  women  pieced 
together  the  extra  sheets  and  quilts  which  they 
had  brought  with  them  in  the  wagons,  and  the 
men  cut  poles  over  which  these  coverings  were 
stretched  for  tents.  Some  brought  straw  from 
the  nearest  farms  and  others  foraged  for  provi- 
sions. And  when  the  darkness  fell,  many  fires 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    KENTUCKY    IN    l8OO      73 

were  kindled  through  the  new-made  village  among 
the  trees.1 

The  meeting  lasted  from  Friday  until  Tuesday. 
The  preaching,  praying  and  singing  continued  al- 
most without  cessation  save  for  a  few  hours  in  the 
early  morning.  It  was  not  until  Saturday  evening, 
however,  that  any  special  outbreak  of  overwrought 
nature  manifested  itself.  Then  two  women  be- 
came greatly  excited,  and  their  fervor  was  commu- 
nicated by  contagion  through  the  whole  multitude. 
The  camp  became  a  battle-ground  of  sobs  and 
cries,  and  ministers  spent  nearly  the  whole  night 
in  passing  from  group  to  group  of  the  "  slain." 

Now  imitation  began  in  earnest  upon  the  return 
of  these  worshippers  to  their  homes.  Ten  such 
camp-meetings  were  held  one  after  another  in  the 
Green  and  Cumberland  settlements.  They  be- 
came the  vocation  of  the  people.  "  Age  snatched 
his  crutch,  Youth  forgot  his  pastime,  the  laborer 
quitted  his  task,"  "  the  crops  were  left  forgotten, 
the  cabins  were  deserted,  in  large  settlements  there 
did  not  remain  one  soul." 

The  most  notorious  example  of  this  intense  form 
of  the  revival  "crowd  "  is  furnished  by  the  Cane 
Ridge  camp-meeting  of  August,  1801,  which  took 
place  farther  north  in  Bourbon  County,  Kentucky. 
The  biography  of  Elder  B.  W.  Stone  makes  it 
clear  that  it  was  an  imitation  from  Logan  County. 
Elder  Stone  lived  in  Bourbon  County.  Word  had 

1  Cf.  article  on  "  Red  River  Revival,"  Western  Christian  Advo- 
cate, April  1 6,  1902. 


74      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS^IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

come  to  him  of  the  amazing  scenes  of  excitement 
and  zeal  in  the  southwest,  and  he  made  the  journey 
in  the  spring  of  1801  to  witness  what  to  him  was 
"  new  and  passing  strange."  The  historians  of  the 
Cumberland  Presbyterian  Church  —  which  by  the 
way  was  an  excellent  product  of  the  Logan  County 
revival  —  have  been  sometimes  wont  to  contend 
that  the  disorder  and  super-emotionalism  which 
defile  the  record  of  these  early  days,  were  the 
output  of  the  Cane  Ridge  quarter  of  Kentucky 
and  should  not  be  charged  against  the  settlement 
in  the  southwest.  On  this  point  the  unvarnished 
tale  of  Elder  Stone  reflects  some  light.  By  the 
side  of  his  own  Cane  Ridge,  which  he  regarded  as 
a  dead  community  spiritually,  he  set  the  wonder- 
ful work  which  he  saw  in  Logan  County.  It  baffled 
description,  he  says.  "  Many,  very  many,  fell  .  .  . 
and  continued  for  hours  together  in  an  apparently 
breathless  and  motionless  state,  sometimes  for  a 
few  moments  reviving  and  exhibiting  symptoms  of 
life  by  a  deep  groan  or  a  piercing  shriek  or  by  a 
prayer  for'  mercy  fervently  uttered.  After  lying 
there  for  hours  .  .  .  they  would  rise,  shouting  de- 
liverance." Then  others  would  fall,  under  the 
eloquence  of  those  who  rose  and  related  their  ex- 
perience. In  addition  he  saw  much  which  he 
thought  fanaticism,  but  considered  to  be  the  devil 
apeing  the  power  of  God.  He  returned  with  ardent 
spirit  to  his  congregations  at  Concord  and  Cane 
Ridge.  The  next  Sunday  morning  at  the  latter 
place  he  met  a  multitude  who  had  gathered  to 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    KENTUCKY    IN    l8OO      75 

listen  to  his  recital  of  his  experience  of  grace  at 
Logan.  There  was  awful  solemnity,  and  many 
wept.  At  night  he  spoke  in  the  Concord  church 
and  told  the  story  of  what  he  had  seen  in  the  south- 
west. During  that  meeting  two  little  girls  were 
struck  down  under  the  preaching  "  and  in  every 
respect  were  exercised  as  others  were  in  the  south 
of  Kentucky" 1  The  people  were  greatly  moved, 
and  not  long  after  a  vast  host,  estimated  by  a  revo- 
lutionary officer  on  the  ground  to  be  twenty  thou- 
sand souls,  came  together  at  the  Cane  Ridge  camp. 
The  remembrance  of  that  fateful  gathering  lin- 
gers in  Kentucky  after  the  lapse  of  a  century. 
Nothing  was  lacking  to  stir  to  its  prof  oundest  depths 
the  imagination  and  emotion  of  this  great  throng 
of  men,  women  and  children.  It  was  at  night 
that  the  most  terrible  scenes  were  witnessed,  when 
the  camp-fires  blazed  in  a  mighty  circle  around  the 
vast  audience  of  pioneers  bowed  in  devotion. 
Beyond  was  the  blackness  of  the  primeval  forest, 
above  the  night  wind  and  the  foliage  and  the  stars. 
As  the  darkness  deepened,  the  exhortations  of  the 
preachers  became  more  fervent  and  impassioned, 
their  picturesque  prophecies  of  doom  more  lurid 
and  alarming,  the  volume  of  song  burst  all  bonds 
of  guidance  and  control,  and  broke  again  and  again 
from  the  throats  of  the  people,  while  over  all,  at 
intervals,  there  rang  out  the  shout  of  ecstasy,  the 
sob  and  the  groan.  When  daylight  came,  the 

1  Quoted  in  "  The  Disciples,"  American  Church  History  series, 
Vol.  XII,  Tyler, 


76      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

temper  of  the  assembly  was  somewhat  modified, 
but  there  was  the  same  tendency  to  boisterous 
emotion.  Men  and  women  shouted  aloud  during 
the  sermon,  and  shook  hands  all  around  at  the 
close  in  what  was  termed  the  "  singing  ecstasy."  * 
There  are  many  suggestive  bits  of  testimony  to 
the  highly  overwrought  state  of  these  susceptible 
people.  One  of  the  most  careful  observers,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Lyle,  who  kept  a  diary  and  journal 
through  this  whole  period,  and  passed  calm  judg- 
ment in  the  midst  of  the  wild  excitement,  to  whom 
we  owe  the  best  account  of  the  extrayagances 
and  disorders,  has  described  the  crowd  at  Cane 
Ridge  rushing  from  preacher  to  preacher  if  it 
were  whispered  that  it  was  "  more  lively  "  at  some 
other  point,  swarming  enthusiastically  around  a 
"  fallen  "  brother,  laughing,  leaping,  sobbing,  shout- 
ing, swooning.  If  the  assembly  were  languid,  he 
says,  a  few  shrieks  and  one  or  two  instances  of 
falling  would  quickly  arouse  them,  and  as  far  in 
every  direction  as  the  people  could  see  or  hear, 
others  would  be  caught  in  the  contagion  and  would 
likewise  fall.2  Children  were  allowed  to  preach,  a 
little  girl  of  seven  being  propped  up  on  the  shoul- 
ders of  a  man,  and  exhorting  to  the  multitude  "  till 
she  sank  exhausted  on  her  bearer's  head." 

And  when  we  reflect  that  this  mighty  crowd  did 
not  break  up  on  this  occasion  until  the  food  gave 

1  Davidson,  "  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Kentucky," 
p.  138. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  140. 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    KENTUCKY    IN    1 80O      77 

out,  but  remained  for  days  an  agitated  mass  of 
humanity  in  the  midst  of  such  surroundings  as 
these,  contemplating  the  most  momentous  truths,, 
ascribing  every  extraordinary  nervous  contortion  to ; 
the  mysterious  agency  of  the  divine,  we  can  welli 
understand  how  many,  very  many,  would  be  physi- 
cally and  mentally  overwhelmed.  The  whole  body 
of  persons  who  actually  fell  helpless  to  the  earth 
during  the  progress  of  the  meeting  was  computed 
by  the  Rev.  James  Crawford,  who  avers  that  he  en- 
deavored to  keep  an  accurate  account,  to  be  three 
thousand  persons,  about  one  in  every  six.  The 
number  who  fell  in  the  ghost-dance  on  White  Clay 
Creek  was,  it  will  be  remembered,  about  one  out 
of  three.  Measured  by  this  test,  the  Kentuckian  of 
1800  is  certainly  entitled  to  the  distinction  of  being 
twice  as  civilized  as  the  savage.  Those  who  fell 
were  carried  to  the  meeting-house  near  by.  "  At 
no  time  was  the  floor  less  than  half  covered.  Some 
lay  quiet,  unable  to  move  or  speak.  Some  talked, 
but  could  not  move.  Some  beat  the  floor  with 
their  heels.  Some,  shrieking  in  agony,  bounded 
about  like  a  live  fish  out  of  water.  Many  lay 
clown  and  rolled  over  and  over  for  hours  at  a 
time.  Others  rushed  wildly  over  the  stumps  and 
benches,  and^t-hen  plunged,  shouting, '  Lost !  Lost ! ' 
into  the  forest." l 

When  the  frenzy  was  at  its  height,  these  revival 
crowds  were  subject  to  a  set  of  nervous  and  mus- 
cular manifestations  probably  as  varied  and  terrible 

1  McMaster,  "  History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  II,  p.  581. 


78      PRIMITIVE   TRAITS   IN   RELIGIOUS   REVIVALS 

as  ever  afflicted  a  population  in  this  world.  There 
is  no  question  of  the  truth  of  this  sad  chapter 
of  pioneer  history.  The  evidence  is  too  over- 
powering and  convincing.  There  is  no  question 
of  the  reality  of  the  manifestations,  though  as  else- 
where it  is  likely  there  was  considerable  humbug 
and  deception.  But  there  were  many  doubters, 
and  the  "  fallen  "  subjects  were  often  put  to  the 
proof.  For  instance,  our  friend  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Lyle,  furnished  with  a  phial  of  hartshorn  by  a 
physician,  "  applied  it  to  a  stout  young  man  who 
was  lying  flat  on  his  back,  and  inadvertently  al- 
lowed some  to  run  into  his  nostrils.  But  he  took 
not  the  slightest  notice  of  it,  so  much  was  his 
attention  absorbed  by  devotional  feeling."  1 

With  respect  to  extravagancies  and  disorders, 
there  are  a  large  number  of  corroborative  refer- 
ences in  Lyle,  Peter  Cartwright,2  Lorenzo  Dow 
and  other  contemporaries.  Next  to  the  "  falling  " 
exercise  the  most  notable  and  characteristic  Ken- 
tucky phenomenon  was  the  "jerks."  The  un- 
happy victim  shook  in  every  joint.  Sometimes  the 
head  was  thrown  from  side  to  side  with  great  ra- 
pidity. Again  the  feet  were  affected,  and  the  sub- 
ject would  hop  like  a  frog.  Often  the  body  would 
be  thrown  violently  to  the  ground,  where  it  would 
continue  to  bound  from  one  place  to  another.  Peter 

1  Lyle,  "  Diary,"  p.  18. 

2  See,  for  example,  Peter  Cartwright's  "  Autobiography,"  p.  93, 
where  it  is  recorded  that,  after  a  mob  was  quelled,  "  three  hundred 
fell  like  dead  men  in  mighty  battle." 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    KENTUCKY    IN    l8OO      79 

Cartwright  declares  that  he  had  seen  more  than  five 
hundred  persons  jerking  at  once  in  his  congrega- 
tion. And  Lorenzo  Dow,  writing  of  a  time  some 
years  later,  when  the  epidemic  again  broke  out  in 
that  section,  remarks  that  on  Sunday  at  Knoxville 
"the  governor  being  present,  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  had  the  jerking  exercise."  It  is  still  a 
phenomenon  in  the  religious  life  of  that  country. 
I  saw  mild  cases  of  it  in  the  summer  of  1903 
among  the  whites  in  the  Chilhowee  Mountains. 
In  1800  no  one  was  proof  against  it,  saint  or  sin- 
ner, white  or  black,  except,  as  Lorenzo  Dow  naively 
remarks,  "  those  naturalists  who  wished  to  get  it 
to  philosophize  upon  it,  and  the  most  godly.  The 
wicked  are  more  afraid  of  it  than  of  smallpox  or 
yellow  fever." 

It  became  an  infectious  disease.  It  passed  the 
bounds  of  normal  imitation  and  became  a  morbid 
contagion,  and  many  a  scoffer  bit  the  dust  in  the 
midst  of  his  contempt  and  derision.  Peter  Cart- 
wright  relates  a  serious  instance  of  this  which  he 
vouches  for  as  having  taken  place  in  William 
McGee's  congregation.  "  There  was  a  great  work 
of  religion  and  the  jerks  were  very  prevalent."  A 
large  man  with  a  bottle  of  whiskey  in  his  pocket 
reviled  both  the  jerks  and  the  religion.  In  a  flash 
the  contagion  pursued  him,  caught  him,  and  though 
he  started  to  run,  it  was  useless.  "  He  halted 
among  some  saplings,  took  out  his  bottle  of 
whiskey  and  swore  he  would  drink  the  damned 
jerks  to  death.  But  he  could  not  get  the  bottle  to 


SO      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

his  mouth,  though  he  tried  hard.  At  this  he 
became  greatly  enraged,  fetched  a  very  violent 
jerk,  snapped  his  neck,  fell,  and  soon  expired, 
with  his  mouth  full  of  cursing  and  bitterness."  1 

Another  phenomenon  not  so  common  was  the 
"  barking  "  exercise.  The  votaries  of  this  dignified 
rite  gathered  in  groups,  on  all  fours,  like  dogs, 
growling  and  snapping  the  teeth  at  the  foot  of  a 
tree  as  the  minister  preached, —  a  practice  which 
they  designated  as  "  treeing  the  devil  "  ! 

When  this  stage  was  reached,  it  is  evident  that 
the  tension  had  invaded  the  brain.  It  is  only  nat- 
ural, then,  that  we  have  here  again  the  trance  and 
the  vision.  The  affections  of  the  ghost-dance 
Indians  were  duplicated  very  exactly,  so  perfectly 
indeed  that  it  would  not  be  inaccurate  to  describe 
the  ghost-dance  ceremony  as  a  Kentucky  camp- 
meeting  run  amuck.  Many  of  these  camp-meeting 
folk  lay  insensible,  sometimes  for  hours,  but  when 
they  recovered  from  the  swoon  it  was  to  relate,  in 
what  were  called  "  strains  of  heaven,"  experiences 
of  interviews  with  departed  friends  and  visions  of 
glory  not  vouchsafed  to  their  normally  conscious 
and  less  fortunate  brethren.  They  claimed  divine 
inspiration  and  prophesied  of  the  end  of  all  things. 
The  phenomena  of  Millerism,  spiritualism  and  faith 
healing  were  as  manifest  here  as  among  the  Cher- 
okees  or  the  Shakers  of  Puget  Sound.2 

1  "Autobiography,"  Peter  Cartwright,  pp.  50,  51. 

2  Cf.  Davidson,  op.  cit.,  pp.  152,  153;  also  Cartwright,  "Autobi- 
ography," pp.  51,  52f. 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    KENTUCKY    IN    iSOO      8l 

When  nervous  tension  had  risen  to  the  maxi- 
mum, it  is  interesting  to  mark  its  fall  towards  the 
minimum  in  the  changed  character  of  the  phenom- 
ena. When  a  year  or  two  had  elapsed,  the  milder 
hysterical  forms  of  muscular  action  began  to  dis- 
play themselves  in  certain  quarters,  until,  in  1803, 
the  "  froly  laugh_"  became  a  feature  of  the  worship. 
While  the  minister  was  preaching,  the  members 
would  burst  out  one  after  another,  and  then  in 
chorus  into  what  was  regarded  as  a  solemn  laugh. 
The  manner  was  devout  even  when  the  laugh  was 
boisterous. 

There  were  grave  charges,  also,  such  as  were 
commonly  heard  in  former  times  with  respect  to 
camp-meetings  in  many  parts  of  the  country,  of 
the  extraordinarily  free  companionship  of  the 
sexes.  And  these  allegations  were  made  not  by 
the  ungodly,  but  by  prominent  ministers  of  stand- 
ing and  courage  who  inaugurated  plans  for  night 
watches  "  to  reconnoitre  the  camp  and  the  stand."  * 
While  we  may  admit  that  there  has  been  some  ex- 
aggeration of  this  evil  in  the  literature  of  revivals, 
we  must  remember  that  the  human  love  passion 
and  the  spiritual  love  passion  appear  to  modern 
psychology  to  be  delicately  interwoven,  particularly 
in  the  case  of  young  people  between  fourteen  and 
twenty-five,  and  the  kind  of  spiritual  excitement 
which  a  super-emotional  revival  generates  is  likely 
to  be  more  harmful  than  helpful  to  the  self-control 

1  Lyle  gives  some  shocking  instances  of  indecency  in  his  "  Diary." 
Cf.  Davidson,  op.  cit.,  pp.  163,  164. 
G 


82 


of  the  individual  as  exhibited  in  both  his  sexual 
and  spiritual  activities. 

There  appeared  also  in  Kentucky  those  more 
moderate  forms  of  disorder  which  we  shall  see 
distinguishing  the  Edwards  and  Wesley  revivals.  I 
refer  to  such  evidences  of  the  absence  of  ordinary 
rational  deliberation  as  are  indicated  by  the  singing 
of  different  hymns  at  the  same  time,  the  vociferous 
praying  of  many  at  once,  and  the  loud  ejaculations 
of  approval. 

These  phenomena,  some  of  them  curious  and 
some  of  them  dreadful,  were  far  more  common 
than  they  are  often  believed  to  have  been.  The 
Rev.  James  Gallagher  was  the  editor  of  an  early 
Presbyterian  publication,  "  The  Western  Sketch- 
book." He  was  also  a  witness  and  a  close  student 
of  these  peculiar  physical  exercises.  In  referring 
to  the  grosser  forms  of  them,  he  declares  it  to  be 
his  judgment  that  of  the  professors  of  religion  who 
were  in  that  country  at  the  time,  perhaps  one-half 
became  subjects  of  these  bodily  disorders.1  They 
ranged  all  the  way  from  the  normal  imitation  of 
the  "  holy  laugh  "  to  the  morbid  contagion  of  the 
"  jerks  "  and  the  blackness  of  insanity.2  Even  so 
enthusiastic  an  observer  as  Peter  Cartwright,  who 
regarded  the  "jerks"  as  the  judgment  of  God  to 
bring  sinners  to  repentance,  was  at  one  time  ap- 

1  Cf.  McDonnold,  "  History  of  the  Cumberland  Presbyterian 
Church,"  p.  37. 

2  For  illustration  of  this  latter  affliction,  cf.  Cartwright,  "  Auto- 
biography," pp.  86,  87. 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    KENTUCKY    IN    l8OO      83 

palled  by  "the  fearful  tide  of  delusion  that  was 
sweeping  over  the  country."  l  It  is  not  wonderful, 
therefore,  that  rational  control  of  this  mighty  sym- 
pathetic movement  was  for  a  long  time  impossible. 
At  the  inception,  there  were  men  in  the  synod  of 
Kentucky  who  set  themselves  against  the  wild  ex- 
travagances. But  their  power  to  resist  the  tide  was 
lessened  by  the  fact  that  they  attacked  the  revival 
preachers  perhaps  more  vigorously  for  certain 
alleged  aberrations  of  doctrine  than  for  the  dis- 
orderly methods  and  the  practical  vagaries.  And 
when  the  movement  was  well  under  way,  the  very 
momentum  of  it  swept  all  criticism  before  it,  and 
any  minister  who  put  himself  in  the  path  did  so  at 
the  peril  of  his  reputation  and  his  influence.  It 
was  not  till  the  summer  of  1803  that  the  abuses 
were  opposed  with  any  degree  of  success.  Then 
Lyle  preached  a  sermon  which  attracted  wide  at- 
tention from  the  text  —  "  God  is  not  the  author  of 
confusion  but  of  peace."  Father  Rice,  an  old 
white-haired  preacher  of  commanding  intelligence 
and  sound  judgment,  insisted  upon  better  regula- 
tions and  a  guard  around  the  camp,  "  and  exhorted 
powerfully  against  noise  and  false  exercises."2  The 
path  of  opposition  was  sometimes  thorny.  An 
editor  at  Lexington  arose  and  insisted  that  some 
ladies  who  had  fallen  needed  air  and  nothing  else, 
but  the  "  ladies  themselves,  on  being  asked,  pro- 
fessed the  contrary,  and  the  editor  slunk  away 
ashamed." 

1  Cartwright,  of.  cit.,  p.  53.  2  Lyle,  "  Diary,"  p.  44. 


84      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

This  difficulty  of  control  was  accentuated  by  the 
very  considerable  measure  of  ignorance,  super- 
stition and  fear  that  actually  existed  in  the  popula- 
tion. They  had  firm  trust  in  signs  and  omens. 
Peter  Cartwright  relates  an  amusing  illustration, 
showing  how  inbred  was  the  belief  in  magic.  Two 
fashionably  dressed  young  women,  attended  by 
their  brothers  with  loaded  horsewhips,  came  to 
one  of  his  meetings  in  1804.  Cartwright  was 
feeling  somewhat  ill,  and,  before  he  preached,  took 
a  small  bottle  of  peppermint  from  his  pocket  and 
sipped  a  little.  During  the  sermon  which  followed 
the  two  young  women  became  afflicted  with  the 
"  jerks,"  to  their  great  mortification.  At  the  close 
of  the  meeting  the  brothers  were  waiting  for  the 
preacher  with  the  horsewhips.  Cartwright  pro- 
fessed innocence  of  any  intention  to  influence  the 
sisters  after  this  fashion,  but  the  brothers  hotly 
affirmed  that  he  need  not  deny  it,  for  they  had  seen 
him  take  the  phial  out  of  his  pocket  in  which  was 
the  substance  that  had  "  tricked  "  the  young  women.1 
And  this  same  rugged  pioneer  preacher,  who  hact> 
a  fine  vein  of  sanity  in  him,  has  also  told  us  of  the 
thousands  of  people  who  crowded  into  membership 
in  the  churches  from  mere  fright  during  the 
period  of  the  severe  earthquakes  of  the  Mississippi  v 
Valley  in  the  year  :8i2.2 

I  think  that  we  may  wait  with  advantage  until  a 
later  chapter  for  an  estimate  of  the  social  value  of 
such  a  movement  as  has  here  been  described.  I 

1  Cartwright,  op.  cit.t  p.  49.  a  Ibid.,  p.  180  L 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    KENTUCKY    IN    l8cO      85 

will  not  refrain,  however,  at  this  point,  from  pay- 
ing tribute  to  the  splendid  worth  of  the  typical 
pioneer  preachers  of  those  days.  As  a  class  they 
were  ignorant  in  matters  of  learning,  but  shrewd 
and  thoroughly  trained  in  the  practical  experience 
of  living  —  narrow  with  respect  to  the  wearing  of 
ruffled  shirts  and  jewelry,  but  in  general  very 
broad  in  their  charity.  Some  were  not  so  well 
balanced  as  others,  but  as  a  type  they  were 
admirable  —  utterly  fearless,  sturdy  and  honest. 
Finis  Ewing  was  a  man  of  this  stamp.  Peter 
Cartwrisdit  was  another.  No  novel  is  more  inter- 
esting inan  his  autobiography.  Preaching  with 
marvellous  eloquence  to  thousands,  repelling  mobs 
with  the  vigor  of  his  fists,  setting  himself  like  flint 
against  the  worse  extravagances  and  giving  great 
offence  therebV,  he  stalked  through  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky  and  later  through  Illinois  with  the  tread 
of  a  giant.  He  was  a  great  lover  of  his  country 
and  of  his  kind,  always  as  vitally  concerned  for 
the  life  of  the  nation  as  for  the  life  of  the  church. 
The  real  ethical  and  spiritual  power  of  some  of 
these  men  explains  the  other  side  of  the  Kentucky 
revival,  and  the  other  side  of  pioneer  religious 
activity  in  general.  For  it  must  be  remembered 
that  the  revival  of  1800  was  only  a  remarkable 
episode  in  a  half  century  or  more  of  pioneer 
preaching.  In  spite  of  an  unbridled  religious 
method  which  gave  free  rein  to  human  weakness 
and  human  passion  and  which  did  an  incalculable 
amount  of  harm,  there  were  still  enforced  in  a 


86       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

very  large  number  of  cases  true  rational  principles  of 
living.  And  it  is  due  to  the  straightforward  man- 
liness and  moral  sanity  of  many  of  these  rugged 
pulpit  personalities  that  a  multitude  in  their  day 
and  generation  did  not  sink  to  the  level  of  the 
savagery  with  which  they  were  surrounded,  but 
were  saved  to  add  their  moral  vigor  to  democracy 
and  all  the  higher  life  of  the  nation.  And  this  was 
a  great  gain.  But  on  the  other  hand  there  is  much 
reason  to  believe  that  the  habits  of  impulsive  social 
action,  developed  and  fostered  in  the  early  years  of 
the  century  by  the  Kentucky  revivals,  and  imitated 
at  intervals  ever  since,  have  played  their  unworthy 
part  in  rendering  that  section  of  our  country 
peculiarly  susceptible  to  highly  emotional  out- 
breaks of  prejudice,  passion  and  even  of  criminality. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    ULSTER    IN    1859 

THE  later  Scotch-Irish  revival  in  Ulster  presents 
no  new  principles  and  few  new  facts,  and  its 
importance  to  this  study  therefore  will  net  warrant 
our  lingering  long  upon  it.  I  recommend  it,  how- 
ever, as  an  excellent  example  of  the  normal  work- 
ing of  the  laws  of  impulsive  social  action.  In  the 
first  place  it  was  an  imitated  revival.  Intelligence 
of  the  great  religious  movement  of  1857  in  America 
had  spread  to  the  north  of  Ireland,  and  a  consider- 
able number  of  self-controlled  and  excellent  min- 
isters wished  for  a  spiritual  shower  upon  their  own 
thirsty  vineyards,  prayed  for  it  and  planned  for  it. 
But  when  the  shower  came,  it  burst  first  upon  the 
Connor  district  of  county  Antrim  as  the  result  of 
a  fellowship  meeting  held  in  a  butcher  shop.  The 
butcher  was  an  ignorant  man  who  two  years  before 
did  not  know  the  alphabet.  There  were  several 
day-laborers  present,  including  a  stone-cutter  and 
a  blacksmith's  boy.  There  was  also  a  stone- 
breaker,  one  of  four  brothers.  YHis  mother  was 
the  sister  of  a  notorious  pugilist,  to  whom  she  had 

87 


88      PRIMITIVE   TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

been  a  bottle-holder,  and  she  was  watched  as  a 
thief  when  she  entered  a  shop  in  that  community. 
Her  sons  bore  a  bad  name.1  I  mention  this  not  to 
the  discredit  of  these  persons,  who  were  groping  for 
something  better  in  character,  but  only  to  illustrate 
the  law  of  origin.  It  is  not  remarkable,  therefore, 
that  from  the  outset  there  were  physical  manifes- 
tations, singular  and  violent.  They  acted  like  a 
shock  upon  the  community  and  were  imitated  far 
and  wide. 

Men  from  the  Connor  meeting  journeyed  from 
place  to  place  in  praying  bands.  The  revival 
spread  next  to  Ahoghill,  then  to  Ballymena,  three 
miles  distant  from  Ahoghill.  Here  the  laws  of  imi- 
tation and  of  origin  revealed  themselves  once  more. 
A  man  fell  on  his  knees  in  the  market-place  and 
aroused  the  people  on  all  sides  "by  loud  and  des- 
perate cries  expressive  of  the  most  appalling  agony, 
such  as  might  be  expected  from  a  man  who  felt  him- 
self suddenly  attacked  and  sinking  under  the  re- 
peated and  deadly  blows  of  an  assassin."  2  A  great 
spread  of  the  revival  in  Ballymena  followed.  Next 
the  movement  spread  northward  three  miles  to 
the  village  of  Brougshane.  Several  young  women 
were  affected  with  prostrations  in  a  spinning  fac- 
tory. The  mental  excitement  became  so  intense 
that  within  an  hour  "  twenty  or  thirty  persons  of 
both  sexes  were  laid  prostrate,"  and  the  business 
of  the  factory  was  interrupted  for  several  days.3 

1  Gibson,  "  The  Year  of  Grace,"  p.  45. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  58.  8  Ibid.,  p.  75. 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    ULSTER    IN    l8$9      89 

We  read  at  once  of  great  congregations  in  this 
community,  several  thousand  gathering  in  the 
open  air  and  remaining  all  day  in  prayer  and 
praise. 

Thence  the  revival  spread  to  Coleraine  in  northern 
Antrim,  where  it  produced  most  startling  effects  and 
seems  to  have  reached  its  maximum.  In  this  com- 
munity it  swept  nearly  the  whole  population  under 
its  sway.  The  figures  of  speech  in  sermon  and  song 
reflect  the  condition.  Winter  is  over  in  a  moment, 
and  the  time  of  the  singing  of  birds  has  come. 
The  favorite  hymn,  "  What's  the  news  ?  "  repre- 
sents the  revival  as  spreading  as  the  news  spreads, 
swiftly  from  lip  to  lip.  The  Rev.  William  Arthur, 
an  English  Wesleyan  minister,  remarks  inci- 
dentally that  among  the  common  people  the 
movement  was  spoken  of  as  a  disease.  "  He  took 
it,"  "  he  caught  it,"  and  similar  phrases  were  com- 
mon. The  revival  invaded  the  local  newspaper 
office,  and  compositors  were  struck  down  so  that 
the  publication  of  the  Chronicle  was  delayed. 
It  was  at  Coleraine  on  the  9th  of  June,  1859,  that 
nearly  one  hundred  persons  who  were  suffering 
from  the  prostration  of  religious  meetings  were 
carried  into  the  town  hall  and  sheltered  until 
morning.  These  are  the  same  people,  we  see, 
whose  kin  were  at  Cane  Ridge ;  and  also  at  the 
Cabin  Creek  meeting,  Kentucky,  when  on  the 
22d  of  May,  1801,  on  the  third  night,  men  and 
women  by  the  score  were  carried  into  a  church 
near  by  "  to  prevent  their  being  trodden  upon, 


9O       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

and  were  laid  out  on  the  floor  as  so  many 
corpses."  1 

Next  it  spread  to  Belfast  and  the  surrounding 
country  as  the  result  of  a  visit  of  a  band  of  young 
men  from  Coleraine,  thence  through  county  Ar- 
magh. By  this  time  there  had  developed  a  large 
number  of  cases  of  passive  manifestation.  Around 
Belfast  there  were  many  victims  of  the  delusion 
that  "  stigmata  "  had  appeared  upon  their  bodies, 
and  the  Rev.  William  Brakey,  of  the  town  of 
Lisburn,  who  was  sceptical  about  it,  encountered 
great  opposition  among  the  common  people,  who 
fully  believed  in  the  existence  of  these  divine 
marks.  In  this  vicinity  there  were  also  a  consider- 
able number  of  "sleeping"  phenomena,  the  reli- 
gious subject  falling  into  slumber  at  will  and  waking 
several  days  afterwards  at  the  time  which  he  him- 
self had  set,  to  relate  his  experience  of  divine 
revelation.  These  caused  great  excitement  until 
Dr.  McCosh  vigorously  attacked  both  the  deluded 
and  the  impostors  with  the  proposition  that  the 
Orientals  could  perform  the  trick  far  better.  In 
county  Armagh  were  many  instances  of  visions, 
dumbness  and  blindness,  the  hysterical  action  hav- 
ing invaded  the  centres  of  sight  and  speech. 

It  was  on  the  whole  a  revival,  like  that  of  1857 
in  America,  marked  by  much  prayer  among  the 
people  and  in  the  congregation,  rather  than  by  the 
violent  pulpit  demonstrations  of  the  Kentucky  days 
and  the  periods  of  Edwards  and  Wesley.  But  in 

1  McMaster,  "  History  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  II,  p.  580  f. 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    ULSTER    IN    1859      91 

many  sections,  such  preaching  as  there  was 
shocked  whole  communities  into  a  sense  of  fright- 
ful personal  danger,  and  pictured  as  faithfully  and 
as  vividly  as  did  the  old  pioneers  the  fiery  hell 
yawning  at  the  feet  of  the  impenitent.  It  was  the 
crushing  sense  of  sin,  the  awful  apprehension  of 
impending  doom,  the  looking  forward  to  judg- 
ment, the  fierce  wrestling  with  the  Evil  One,  which 
were  everywhere  the  exciting  conditions  of  the 
paroxysms. 

The  movement  from  the  beginning  was  under 
far  better  control  than  in  Kentucky.  The  number 
of  rational  leaders  among  the  professional  classes, 
the  clergymen  and  others,  was  of  course  much 
larger  than  could  be  found  on  the  border  in  1800. 
But  the  yawning  gulf  of  possible  convulsion  in  the 
population  had  opened,  and  it  was  not  an  easy  thing 
to  close  it  again.  Dr.  Gibson,  the  historian  of  the 
revival,  speaking  in  Belfast,  attempted  to  avoid,  if 
possible,  all  disorder  and  extravagance  of  emotion. 
And  so  he  began,  he  says,  "  in  a  most  unimpas- 
sioned  strain,"  avoiding  every  allusion  which  might 
cause  disturbance.  But  there  was  no  help  for  it. 
He  had  not  proceeded  far  before  a  woman  sank 
with  a  despairing  cry  and  had  to  be  borne  out. 
She  was  succeeded  by  another  and  another,  until 
he  was  obliged  to  suspend  his  address  and  engage 
the  audience  in  singing  until  they  were  all  disposed 
of  by  their  friends  and  the  ushers.  The  general 
assembly  which  met  in  July  of  that  year  threw  its 
influence  with  the  party  of  control  on  the  interest- 


92      PRIMITIVE   TRAITS   IN    RELIGIOUS   REVIVALS 

ing  ground  that  "  a  desire  to  experience  prostra- 
tions was  being  raised  all  through  the  north  of 
Ireland." 

And  so  the  influence  of  better  counsels  extended 
itself  in  every  direction.  In  county  Down  the 
prostrations,  which  had  been  many,  practically 
ceased  after  the  first  few  weeks,  and  there  were 
communities  in  Ulster  where  the  work  of  moral 
transformation  went  on  with  hardly  a  single  in- 
stance of  "striking  down." 

I  wish  in  closing  this  chapter  to  call  attention  to 
the  difference  in  type  of  the  automatisms  of  Ken- 
tucky and  Ulster.  In  Kentucky  the  motor  autom- 
atisms, the  voluntary  muscles  in  violent  action,  were 
the  prevailing  type,  although  there  were  many  of 
the  sensory.  On  the  other  hand,  in  Ulster  the 
sensory  automatisms,  trance,  vision,  the  physical 
disability  and  the  sinking  of  muscular  energy  were 
the  prevailing  type,  although  there  were  many  of 
the  motor.  I  do  not  mean  that  I  can  explain  it. 
It  may  be  that  as  the  Charcot  and  Nancy  schools 
of  hypnosis  brought  out  by  chance,  each  in  its  own 
field,  different  kinds  of  hypnotic  phenomena,  which, 
when  known,  spread  by  imitation  in  the  respective 
localities  and  under  the  respective  influences,  so  in 
Kentucky  and  the  north  of  Ireland  by  chance  there 
appeared  different  types  of  physical  manifestation 
which  were  then  imitated  in  the  respective  coun- 
tries. But  I  have  a  belief  that  this  is  not  the  whole 
of  the  matter,  but  that  the  type  of  automatism  will 
be  found  to  be  correlated  with  the  type  of  mind  of 


SCOTCH-IRISH    REVIVAL    IN    ULSTER    IN    1859      93 

the  population.  The  Kentucky  of  1800,  though 
exhibiting  many  higher  elements,  was  also  a 
strongly  motor  community,  and  motor  manifesta- 
tions were  as  natural  to  it  as  were  the  sensory  to 
the  settled,  peaceful,  and  less  physically  progres- 
sive people  in  the  north  of  Ireland  in  the  middle 
of  the  century. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE  religious  interest  which  began  at  North- 
ampton, Massachusetts,  in  the  winter  of  1734-1735 
under  Jonathan  Edwards,  culminated  in  what  is 
known  as  the  Great  Awakening  under  George 
Whitefield  and  other  revival  preachers.  But  the 
latter  movement  was  far  more  extended  in  time 
and  space.  The  Great  Awakening  belongs  at  least 
to  the  whole  decade  from  1740  to  1750,  and  ranged 
over  the  whole  eastern  sea-coast  from  Maine  to 
Georgia.  I  propose  in  this  chapter  to  discuss 
briefly  only  the  New  England  section  of  the  Great 
Awakening  in  its  inception  under  Edwards  and 
in  its  extension  under  other  men.  I  make  this 
segregation  both  because  the  limited  field  will  suf- 
ficiently abound  in  material  for  our  purpose,  and 
also  because  we  shall  thus  be  able  to  observe  the 
influence  of  a  great  sympathetic  religious  move- 
ment upon  quite  a  different  type  of  mind  than  any 
we  have  hitherto  studied.  The  New  England 
population  of  therfirst  half  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tur^was  not  a  primitive  population  within  any 
sound  meaning  of  the  word.  It  was  not  even  any 

94 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING   WITH    EDWARDS       95 

longer  living  in  a  strictly  pioneer  environment 
which  might  bring  out  in  relief  certain  latent  primi- 
tive traits,  as  was  the  case  with  the  Scotch-Irish 
in  Kentucky.  During  a  large  part  of  the  century 
preceding,  it  had  been  conquering  a  primitive  en- 
vironment, that  is  true,  —  and  the  effect  of  this  it 
is  possible  to  trace  into  the  mental  prepossessions 
and  characteristics  of  the  New  Englander  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  He  was  not  by  any  means 
the  same  type  of  personality  as  his  forebears  in 
the  eastern  counties  of  old  England.  But  the  con- 
quest was  practically  over.  The  stony  soil  had 
yielded  to  the  plough  and  harrow,  and  the  savage 
had  succumbed  to  superior  intelligence  and  the 
firearm.  The  conquerors  had  made  peaceful  settle- 
ment upon  farm  or  village.  Harvard  and  Yale 
were  shedding  the  light  and  warmth  of  higher  edu- 
cation far  and  wide.  And  above  alllthe  Puritan 
pulpits  were,  in  the  main,  centres  of  intellectual, 
moral  and  spiritual  virility.  The  propositions  of 
the  now  practically  extinct  Puritan  theology  were 
argued  with  a  vigor  and  with  a  stern  helpfulness 
to  the  mental  and  moral  life  of  the  community  that 
we  can  scarcely  measure  in  our  time.  Here  is  a 
population  of  stability,  one  would  say,  that  could 
not  under  such  restraint  be  easily  swept  from  the 
moorings  of  rational  control. 

But  there  is  another  side.  ]~The  environment  of 
a  hundred  years  had  left  its  mark  upon  them.  The 
immediate  ancestors  of  these  people  were  a  homo- 
geneous group7|  They  had  come  from  the  eastern 


96      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

counties  of  England,  where  the  blood  of  the  Saxon 
and  the  Dane  was  the  leading  strain,  f  They  had 

come  in  response  to  the  same  desire  to  b6*fTee  from 

.  "<3*^, 

the  bonds  of   religious   and   political   oppression* 

They  were  so  much  alike  that  for  a  long  time  they 
could  not  brook  any  variation  from  the  type.  They 
established  anew  the  principle  of  oppression,  and 
held  out  the  hope  of  personal  freedom  only  to  those 
who  believed  with  themselves  in  theocratic  uniform- 
ity. Of  course  I  am  referring  to  the  Puritans  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,  and  not  to  the  Pilgrims  of  Plym- 
outh, who  were  happy  indeed  in  a  wider  human  expe- 
rience and  the  leadership  of  John  Robinson  in  their 
formative  period.  The  New  Englander  shows  the 
influence  of  selection  in  the  abnormal  development 
of  religious  emotion  in  those  early  days,  and  also 

in  the  lack  of  variety  in  his  intellectual  interests. 

,  j 

iTheological  problems  were  the  chief  food  of  his 
thinking.  This  is  because  Puritan  migration  was 
first  of  all  religious  in  character,  and  the  men  who 
thought  and  felt  strongly  in  matters  of  theological 
distinction  were  the  men  who  came  to  America. 
And  they  were  men  in  whose  minds  not  only  tra- 
ditions of  personal  religious  freedom,  but  the  very 
images  which  their  system  of  theology  invoked, 
were  extremely  vivid  and  powerful.  They  were 
men  of  profound  religious  imagination  and  deep  reli- 
gious emotion^  And  they  remained  in  this  highly 
specialized  state  long  after  a  wider  range  of  intel- 
lectual interests  had  powerfully  affected  the  Eng- 
lishman at  home.  They  had  a  well-marked  vein 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS       97 

of  melancholy  that  revealed  the  strain  of  Danish 
blood,  and  from  out  the  gloom  of  New  England 
skies  and  forests,  Rrom  out  the  burden  of  New 
England  hardships7"and  above^-alLiinder  the  de- 
pression of  Puritan  theology,  the  melancholy 
Yankee  emergedj  To  relieve  his  sad  estate,  nature 
gave  him  a  peculiar  flavor  of  humor,  certainly 
"  extra  dry,"  but  Celtic  in  its  genesis,  too,  it  may 
be,  for  the  Yankee  was  not  altogether  Teuton. 
Even  in  the  eastern  counties  of  England  the  Celt 
was  not  wholly  driven  out  or  exterminated.  The 
strain  was  still  perceptible  if  not  strong.1 

Surely  this  description  does  not  fit  exactly  the 
Englishman  of  the  period,  although  these  Yankees 
were  all  English  one  hundred  years  before.  Social 
selection  and  environment  had  given  stability  to 
something  approaching  a  new  human  variety. 
This  variety  was  on  the  whole  of  the  dogmatic- 
emotional  type  of  mind,  as  distinguished  from  the 
merely  sympathetically  emotional  type  of  the  negro, 
or  the  motor-emotional  type,  with  strongly  dogmatic 
elements,  which  we  observed  in  eighteenth-century 
Kentucky.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  this 
[dogmatic  type,  which  profoundly  cherishes  beliefs, 
which  is  austere  in  morality,  which  may  be  deduc- 

1  An  excellent  piece  of  work  upon  the  Yankee  type,  which  has 
been  very  helpful  to  me  in  the  preparation  of  this  chapter,  is  con- 
tained in  a  "  Study  of  Provincial  Massachusetts,"  —  a  Seminar  paper 
in  sociology  at  Columbia  University,  by  Mr.  Samuel  P.  Hayes.  Cf. 
also  his  "  Study  of  the  Edwardean  Revivals,"  American  Journal  of 
Psychology.  Vol.  XIII. 

a 


98      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

tive  and  logical  to  a  considerable  degree,  is  capable 
of  tremendous  outbursts  of  emotion  when  belief  and 
imagination  combine  to  open  the  sluice-gates.  And 
with  the  eighteenth-century  New  Englandelj  they 
did  so  combine  —  as  will  be  shown,  I  thinEpm  the 
pages  that  follow.  Nowhere  that  I  know  of  do 
we  find  such  frightfully  vivid  images  of  sin  and 
hell  and  the  wrath  of  God  as  existed  in  the  mind 
of  Puritan  minister  and  layman  and  found  expres- 
sion in  the  Puritan  hymn  and  sermon  and  later 
in  the  New  England  theology.  We  shall  have 
ample  illustration  of  this  matter  soon  from  the 
sermons  of  Jonathan  Edwards  and  others,  but  an 
example  or  two  now  will  indicate  how  readily  this 
powerful  imagery  fell  into  Puritan  poetry  and 
hymnology.  Michael  Wigglesworth's  "  Day  of 
Doom  "  was  very  popular  in  New  England  at  this 
time.  Lowell  says  of  it  that  it  was  "  the  solace  of 
every  fireside,  the  flicker  of  the  pine  knots  by 
which  it  was  conned  perhaps  adding  a  lively  relish 
to  its  premonitions  of  eternal  combustion."  Thus 
doth  it  image  forth  the  tender  doctrine  of  everlast- 
ing punishment ! 

"  For  day  and  night  in  their  despite, 

Their  torment's  smoke  ascendeth. 

Their  pain  and  grief  have  no  relief, 

Their  anguish  never  endeth, 

"Who  live  to  lie  in  misery 
And  bear  eternal  woe. 
And  live  they  must  while  God  is  just, 
That  He  may  plague  them  so."1 

1  Pancoast,  "  American  Literature,"  p.  64. 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS       99 

When  Margaret  Deland  wrote  her  first  novel, 
I  think  it  was,  she  put  into  the  mouth  of  one  of 
her  characters  this  stanza  of  an  old  New  England 
hymn : — 

"  My  thoughts  on  awful  subjects  roll, 
Damnation  and  the  dead. 
What  horrors  seize  a  guilty  soul 
Upon  a  dying  bed ! " 

The  critics  of  the  book  asserted  that  she  must 
have  composed  it  for  the  purpose,  but  I  know  at 
least  one  man  who  has  a  distinct  recollection  of 
sitting  in  a  New  England  prayer-meeting  as  a  boy 
and  listening  to  his  grandfather  as  he  rolled  forth 
this  stanza  to  a  melody  which  was  fully  as  comfort- 
ing and  inspiring  as  the  hymn,  fit  was  this-  sort^N  / 
of  a  religious  consciousness,  whicrT  had  an  awful  / 

f    ^^ 

reverence  for  God  and  a  dreadful  fear  of  His  wrath    f 
combined  with  a  profound  trust  in  His  righteous,    ^ 
sovereign  will,  that  gave  birth  on  the  one  hand  to 
the  very  vigorous  and  original  thinking  of  the  New 
England  theology,  and  on  the  other  to  the  burst  of 
religious  emotion  which  characterised  the 
revival  and  the  Great  Awakening.1 1 

That  there  was  in  this  population  an  immense 
amount  of  superstition  we  need  no  further  evidence 
than  the  witchcraft  delusion,  but  I  think  when  we 
take  into  accouhYKow  much  there  was  in  their  phys- 
ical and  religious  environment  to  generate  super- 
stition, the  wonder  is  that  there  was  not  after  all  a 

1  Cf.  Hayes,  "  Study  of  the  Edwardean  Revivals,"  American 
Journal  of  Psychology,  Vol.  XIIL 


IOO      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

great  deal  more  of  it.  "  That  there  was  so  little  of 
it  is  the  strongest  testimony  possible  to  the  hard 
sense,  robust  character  and  sharp  intelligence  of 
the  New  England  people."1 

With  respect  to  the  passional  element  of  the 
Edwards  revival,  I  think  it  may  be  said  that  no 
such  effects  as  are  there  visible  could  have  been 
produced  even  with  the  aid  of  the  shocking  appeals 
to  terror  employed  by  the  preachers  of  that  period, 
if  there  had  not  been  in  the  population  a  tremen- 
dous amount  of  latent  fear.  It  seems  paradoxical 
so  to  speak  of  a  community  which  had  conquered 
its  foes  and  overcome  every  hardship.  One  would 
say  that  there  must  have  been  in  this  population 
a  remarkable  development  of  fearlessness.  And 
so  there  had  been.  (The  New  Englander  of  the 
eighteenth  century  no  longer  felt  conscious  fear  of 
starvation  and  the  savage.  He  was  master  in  the 
presence  of  the  powers  of  evil  whose  ability  to  do 
him  harm  he  could  measure.  But  after  all,  fear- 
lessness and  fear  are  only  opposite  sides  of  the 
same  shield^  Professor  William  James  defines  fear 
as  a  "reaction  aroused  by  the  same  objects  that 
arouse  ferocity."2  Fearlessness  and  fear  dwell 
together  in  the  same  bosom.  With  the  New  Eng- 
lander it  had  been  a  century  of  terrors  —  and  now 
the  time  of  reaction  had  come,  f  He  no  longer 
dreaded  known  danger,  but  the  latent  fear  of  a 
century  rose  up  now  to  reenforce  the  emotion  of 

1  Lodge,  "  English  Colonies  in  America,"  p.  436. 

2  James,  "  Psychology,  Briefer  Course,"  pp.  407,  408. 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS       IOI 

terror  aroused  by  the  unseen  and  the  unknown 
peril  by  which  his  attention  was  extraordinarily 
arrested  in  the  time  of  revival  —  fear  of  the  devil, 
fear  of  hell,  fear  of  the  infinite  wrath  of  an  infinite 
God.  And  in  the  face  of  this  most  dreadful  of  all 
terrors,  the  courage  born  of  a  century  of  conflict 
with  foes  without  and  foes  within  stood  him  in 
little  stead]  He  was  in  the  same  plight  as  the 
tiger  of  ~(9ne  of  Henry  Drummond's  discourses,  in 
the  time  of  a  great  inundation  in  India.  There 
was  a  bungalow  on  an  eminence  of  small  area 
which  arose  above  the  flood.  In  this  shelter  a 
group  of  human  beings  had  gathered,  and  also 
several  comparatively  harmless  wild  animals  had 
escaped  thither.  Suddenly  the  current  bore  a 
royal  Bengal  tiger  in  that  direction,  and  he  crawled 
under  the  roof,  so  paralyzed  with  terror  at  this  new 
and  frightful  experience  that  one  of  the  men  in  the 
company  had  no  difficulty  whatever  in  stepping  up 
to  him,  thrusting  the  barrel  of  a  rifle  to  his  head, 
and  blowing  out  his  brains.  Utterly  fearless  of 
danger  which  he  could  measure,  the  brute  was 
entirely  overcome  by  the  unknown  peril  suddenly 
brought  to  bear  upon  him.1 

One  need  not  wade  very  deeply  into  the  mass 

of  literature  descriptive  of  the  period  just  before 

the  New  England  revival  without  finding  that  lan- 

'  eiiage  has  been  practically  exhausted  in  depicting 


sad  state  of  morals  and  religion.     We  read  of 
the   luxury   and   frivolity    of    the   royal   province 

1  Cf.  James,  "  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,"  p.  262. 


IO2       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

which  had  now  supplanted  the  Puritan  theoc- 
racy, of  the  increase  of  tavern  haunting  and  pro- 
fanity, of  irreligion  among  the  young,  of  the 
decline  of  orthodoxy  among  the  mature  and  the . 
growth  of  heterodoxy  and  even  of  foreign  infidelity,  j 
The  venerable  Pastor  Stoddard  of  Northampton 
and  his  Half  Way  Covenant,  admitting  to  the 
Lord's  Supper  those  who  had  not  made  a  profes- 
sion of  personal  piety,  are  widely  believed  to  have 
reflected  faithfully  the  utterly  lax  ethical  and 
spiritual  standards  of  the  time.  And  so  no  doubt 
in  part  they  did.  But  I  cannot  resist  the  convic- 
tion that  the  total  amount  of  existing  wickedness 
has  been  considerably  exaggerated.1 

The  early  thirties  of  the  eighteenth  century  com- 
pare quite  favorably,  I  think,  with  the  period 
about  eighteen  hundred  when  Lyman  Beecher 
wrote  his  famous  sophomore  reminiscences  of 
immorality  and  impiety  at  Yale,  when  the  reli- 
gious lethargy  of  fifty  years,  which  followed  partly 
as  a  reaction  after  the  excitement  of  the  great 
revival,  had  cast  its  pall  over  New  England,  and 
when  political  matters  connected  with  the  Revolu- 
tion engrossed  the  attention  and  consumed  the 
energy  of  the  colonists.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  the 
exaggeration  has  come  about  when  we  reflect  upon 

1  Since  writing  this  paragraph,  I  have  had  my  attention  called 
to  the  fact  that  Hutchinson,  the  historian  of  Massachusetts,  "  with 
an  almost  contemporaneous  knowledge  of  the  time,"  reenforces 
what  seems  to  be  a  fair  sociological  interpretation.  Cf.  Allen, 
"  Jonathan  Edwards,"  p.  52  fc 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING   WITH    EDWARDS       IO3 

the  censoriousness  which  was  so  marked  a  feature 
of  the  revival.  Even  Whitefield,  as  we  shall  see 
later  on,  was  greatly  addicted  to  it,  and  many  of 
his  confreres  in  the  movement  far  exceeded  him  in 
vituperative  criticism  of  all  who  did  not  agree  with 
their  methods  and  their  opinions.  .Their,  op-po- 
nents  were  un spiritual  men,  unconverted,  un- 
worthy hirelings.  They  and  those  who  stood 
with  them  were  alleged  to  be  responsible  for 
the  depths  into  which  the  Puritan  communities 
had  sunk.  And  later  the  volume  of  enthusiastic 
praise  for  the  good  which  the  revival  wrought 
not  only  quite  overwhelmed  all  discussion  of  the 
evil,  but  produced  a  too  favorable  contrast  of 
the  years  of  refreshing  with  the  years  that  pre- 
ceded. So  late  as  1904,  I  read  a  series  of  lectures 
on  the  Great  Awakening  which  brought  the  name 
of  Chauncy,  the  foremost  critic  of  the  New  Eng- 
land revival  and  a  man  whose  cool  judgment  and 
spirituality  it  is  impossible  to  doubt,  into  very 
unpleasant  juxtaposition  with  the  Scriptural  text, 
"  The  name  of  the  wicked  shall  rot."  In  opposi- 
tion to  the  view  of  the  lecturer,  that  Chauncy  is 
forgotten,  a  name  unheard,  I  venture  the  predic- 
tion that  his  name  will  more  and  more  be  heard  in 
proportion  as  we  attain  a  really  dispassionate  ver- 
dict upon  the  events  of  his  period.  There  was  also, 
at  the  time,  a  too  harsh  judgment  of  the  increasing 
measure  of  really  sane  and  searching  liberalism  in 
thought  which  began  to  appear  in  England  and  on 
the  Continent  in  the  eighteenth  century. 


IO4      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 


most  that  we  can  say  of  the  conditions  that 
..preceded  the  revival  is  that  they  were  relatively 
bad  —  relative,  that  is,  to  the  ethical  standards  of 
the  Puritan  ancien  regime.  ('  But  we  must  look  else- 
where for  anything  like  a  perfect  illustration.,of  the 
theoretically  total  depravity  of  the  period.  There 
had  been  changes  in  government  which  loosened 
the  restraints  upon  many  of  the  weaker  individuals 
in  the  community  who  had  been  kept  to  a  higher 
plane  of  life  by  the  stalwart  disciplinary  props  of 
the  Puritan  theocracy.  There  was  already  a  re- 
volt against  the  stern  and  somewhat  monotonous 
morality  of  the  fathers,  and,  as  ever,  this  tendency 
^  reached  toward  an  extreme.  Liberalism  had  set  in, 
especially  in  eastern  Massachusetts,  and  the  new 
ways  of  thinking  were  not  immediately  favorable  to 
a  warm  and  emotional  type  of  religion.  The  pioneer 
communities  were  in  a  rather  low  state  of  morals. 
There  was  religious  apathyj  The  restraint  theo- 
cratic and  the  restraint  theological  had  been  re- 
moved to  a  considerable  degree,  and  the  pendulum 
for  the  moment  was  swinging  too  far  in  the  other 
direction.  But  there  were  not  wanting  after  all 
many  proofs  of  substantial  character  and  righteous 


However,  as  measured  by  the  standards  of  the 
fathers,  morality  and  the  true  faith  seemed  doomed. 
And  {Jonathan  Edwards,  metaphysician  and  prac- 
tical numan  worker,  believed  that  they  were  doomed 
unless  something  were  done  right  speedily  to  beat 
back  the  rising  tide.  The  personality  of  this  great 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS       IO5 

man  was  doubtless  the  most  notable  in  the  New 
England  of  his  generation.  The  quality  of  his  in- 
tellect, its  perfect  courage,  its  energy,  its  original- 
ity, its  marvellous  philosophic  acuteness,  seem  to 
have  been  a  gift  of  inheritance  in  the  line  of  his 
mother's  genmsTj  She  was  a  woman  of  splendid 
intelligence  anfHindomitable  will.  As  his  family 
name  indicates,  the  ancestors  on  his  father's  side 
were  Welsh.  And  it  may  well  be  that  the  Celtic 
strain  is  responsible  for  that  almost  oriental  imagi- 
nation and  that  mystical  religiousness  of  nature 
which  were  so  characteristic  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 
Joined  with  these  traits  was  the  practical  common 
sense  of  the  Saxon,  exhibited  in  such  a  marked 
manner  in  his  revival  activity.  (The  logic  of  total 
depravity,  unconditional  election  and  irresistible 
grace,  was  all  against  an  appeal  to  men  to  press 
into  the  kingdom.  How  could  a  man  press  into 
the  kingdom  except  God  elect  him  ?  And  if  God 
elect  him,  how  could  man  resist  Him?  But  the  sound 
Saxon  instinct  of  Edwards  prevailed*  Men  have 
called  it  since  the  Edwardean  paradox^  and  para- 
dox it  was,  and  Edwards  could  neA/^r  satisfactorily 
explain  it.  The  popular  vers^cm  of  it,  which  has 
been  attributed  to  that  eccentric  religious  character, 
Lorenzo  Dow,  ran  as  follows  :  — 

tYou  can  and  you  can't, 
You  will  and  you  won't, 
You'll  be  damned  if  you  do, 
You'll  be  damned  if  you  don't." 

But  Edwards,  at  the  parting  of  the  ways,  sanely 


IO6       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

followed  experience  rather  than  logic,  and  "  press 
into  the  kingdom "  became  the  watchword  and 
the  working  principle  of  the  New  Light  party  of 
which  he  was  the  distinguished  headrA 

Edwards  was  called  to  the  churcnat  Northamp- 
ton as  a  young  man,  fresh  from  graduate  study 
and  a  tutorship  at  Yale,  to  become  the  colleague 
and  ultimately  the  successor  of  his  grandfather, 
Solomon  Stoddard.  Northampton  was  a  prosper- 
ous, intelligent  and  growing  community  of  some 
two  hundred  families.  The  church  was  famed  in 
New  England  for  its  long  history  of  mental  and 
spiritual  vigor.  The  community  and  church  at 
this  time,  however,  are  declared  by  Edwards  to 
have  been  in  a  state  of  f theological  and  religious 
decline.  fAnd  it  became  *rlis  purpose  from  the 
first  to  foster  a  warmer  and  deeper  piety,  and 
to  redeem  the  community  from  its  moral  laxity 
of  walk  and  conversation.  With  a  tremendous 
earnestness,  a  wealth  of  imagery,  a  strength  and 
weight  of  logical  argument  that,  his  premises  being 
granted,  were  irresistible,  he  so  presented  the 
chief  themes  of  the  Christian  religion  and  the 
Calvinistic  creed  that  at  the  end  of  the  winter  of 
1734-1735  "there  was  scarcely  a  single  person  in 
the  town,  old  or  young,  left  unconcerned  about  the 
great  things  of  the  eternal  world.  '^\  Beginning 
with  a  single  young  woman  prominent  among  the 
social "  company  keepers  "  of  the  town,  who  first 
became  "  serious,  giving  evidence  of  a  heart  truly 

1  Edwards,  "  Works,"  Vol.  IV,  p.  23. 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS 

broken  and  sanctified,"  it  overspread  the  community, 
until,  when  springtime  came,  this  little  village  of 
two  hundred  families  sheltered  "  three  hundred 
souls  savingly  brought  home  to  Christ."  1  From 
Northampton  it  spread  with  great  rapidity  in  all 
directions,  to  South  Hadley,  Suffield,  Sunderland, 
Deerfield,  Hatfield,  West  Springfield,  Long-meadow, 
Enfield,  Springfield,  Hadley  and  Northfield.2  So 
swift  was  the  movement  that  there  was  written  of  it, 
"  Who  are  these  that  fly  as  a  cloud,  and  as  doves 
to  their  windows  ? "  The  winter's  labor  and  fruit- 
age were  not  confined  to  this  section  alone,  for  the 
news  spread  afar,  especially  through  Edwards' 
little  book,  the  "Narrative  of  Surprising  Conver- 
sions," which  he  wrote  at  the  instance  of  two  Eng- 
lish clergymen  who  had  read  one  ot-his  descriptive 
letters  to  a  mutual  friend.  AndLvhen  Whitefield 
came,  in  1740,  the  seed  of  the  Great  Awakening 
was  already  sownj 

/Edwards'  method  of  arousing  the  sinner  had  in 
it  very  little  indeed  of  the  merely  superficial  art  of 
the  orator  and  rhetorician.  There  was  an  extraor- 
dinary power  of  fascination  in  him,  even  though  his 
eye  never  seemed  to  rest  upon  his  audience,  but 
flashed  continually  from  his  manuscript  to  the 
opposite  walQ  And  this  strange  personal  fascina- 
tion, which  was  a  family  characteristic,  appeared 
in  an  evil  form  in  Edwards'  grandson,  Aaron 
Burr.  But,  in  general,  his  influence  was  something 

1  Edwards,  "Works,"  Vol.  IV,  pp.  18,  28. 
*  Edwards,  "  Thoughts  on  Revivals,"  p.  14  f. 


IO8       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 


far  more  profound.  |  By  dint  of  prodigious  intellec- 
tual strength,  by  the*  wonderfully  vivid  imaging 
forth  of  premises  which  seem  absurd  to  us  but 
were  as  fundamental  to  his  auditors  as  their  own 
being,  by  the  masterly  marshalling  of  terrible 
argument,  he  wrought  out  an  appeal  to  the  fears 
of  his  hearers  which  stirred  them  to  the  very 
depths  of  their  souls.  They  wept,  they  turned 
pale,  they  cried  aloud.  Some  fainted,  some  fell 
into  convulsions,  some  suffered  thereafter  from 
impaired  health  and  some  lost  their  reasonj  1ST 
course  he  preached  upon  other  themes,  but  the 
sermons  which  he  himself  says  were  remarkably 
blessed,  which  truly  awakened  his  hearers,  were 
ever  those  in  which  he  pictured  "  the  kind  of  hell 
an  infinite  God  would  arrange  who  was  infinitely 
enraged  against  a  human  being  who  had  infinitely 
sinned  in  rejecting  God's  infinite  love.""* 

The  proof  of  this  is  usually  presented  in  the 
form  of  Edwards'  famous  Enfield  sermon  of  July  8, 
1741,  upon  the  theme,  "  Sinners  in  the  hands 
of  an  angry  God "  ;  but  it  abounds  elsewhere, 
for  instance  in  a  discourse  of  May,  1735,  entitled, 
"  Wrath  upon  the  wicked  to  the  uttermost,"  or  of 
April,  1739,  upon  "  The  eternity  of  hell  torments," 
or  of  April,  1741,  demonstrating  the  future  punish- 
ment of  the  wicked  to  be  unavoidable  and  intoler- 
able. Other  subjects  are :  "The  justice  of  God  in 

1  Hayes,  "  Study  of  the  Edwardean  Revival,"  American  Journal 
of  Psychology,  Vol.  XIII.  The  ten  points  of  the  Enfield  sermon  are 
from  the  same  source. 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS       IOQ 

the  damnation  of  sinners,"  —  "  The  torments  of 
the  wicked  in  hell  no  occasion  of  grief  to  the  saints 
in  heaven,"  — "  Wicked  men  useful  in  their  de- 
struction only."  ^—  .A  j-s~* 

|The  Rnfjfi&SSfff10"  r  is  typicai  of  those  of  an 
imprecatory  character,  and  we  Itnow  the  circum- 
stances of  it  perfectly,  for  Eleazar  Wheelock  heard 
it  and  wrote  a  description  of  it  to  the  historian 
Trumbull.  The  audience  of  New  England  farmers 
had  gathered  carelessly  without  thought  of  the 
avalanche  of  woe  that  was  to  sweep  down  upon 
them  from  the  pulpit.  And  when  it  came,  many 
cried  aloud  for  mercy  till  the  preacher  could  not 
be  heard,  and  convulsively  grasped  the  benches  to 
prevent  themselves  from  slipping  into  the  pit.- 
His  text  was  from  Deuteronomy  xxxii.  35,  "Their 
foot  shall  slide  in  due  time."  jHis  thesis  was  that 
there  is  nothing  that  keeps  wicTcecI  men  at  any  ope 
moment  out  of  hell  but  the  mere  pleasure  of  Godl 
He  argues  this  in  ten  propositions.  ( i )  There  is 
no  want  of  power  in  God  to  cast  wicked  men  into 
hell  at  any  moment.  (2)  They  deserve  to  be  cast 
into  hell;  therefore  divine  justice  never  stands  in  the 
way.  It  makes  no  objection  against  God's  using 
his  power  at  any  moment  to  destroy  them.  (3)  They 
are  already  under  a  sentence  of  condemnation  to 
hell.  (4)  They  are  now  subjects  of  that  very  same 
anger  and  wrath  of  God  that  is  expressed  in  the 
torments  of  hell.  (5)  The  devil  stands  ready  to 
fall  upon  them  and  seize  them  as  his  own  at  what 

!"  Works,"  Vol.  IV,  p.  313. 


IIO      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

moment  God  will  permit  him.  (6)  There  are  in 
the  souls  of  wicked  men  those  hellish  principles 
raging  that  would  presently  kindle  and  flame  out 
into  hell  fire  if  it  were  not  for  God's  restraint. 
(7)  This  is  no  security  to  wicked  men  for  one 
moment  that  there  are  no  visible  signs  of  death  at 
hand.  (8)  Natural  men's  care  and  prudence  to 
preserve  their  own  lives,  or  the  care  of  others  to 
preserve  them,  does  not  secure  them  for  a  moment. 
(9)  All  wicked  men's  pains  and  contrivances  which 
they  use  to  escape  hell  ...  do  not  secure  them 
from  hell  for  one  moment.  (10)  God  has  laid  him- 
self under  no  obligation  by  promises  to  keep  any 
natural  man  out  of  hell  one  moment. 

He  played  upon  the  chords  of  dread  and  doom 
in  such  passages  as  this :  "  The  unconverted  are 
now  walking  over  the  pit  of  hell  on  a  rotten  cover, 
and  there  are  innumerable  places  in  this  covering 
so  weak  that  they  will  not  bear  their  weight  and 
these  places  are  not  seen." 

Those  in  his  audience  who  may  think  themselves 
in  peace  and  safety  are  warned  that  God  is  more 
angry  with  many  of  the  living,  even  with  many  in 
the  Enfield  church  that  day,  than  He  is  with  many 
who  are  already  in  hell.1  And  the  terrible  conclu- 
sion runs  as  follows  :  — 

"  If  we  knew  that  there  was  one  person  and  but 
one,  in  the  whole  congregation,  that  was  to  be  the 
subject  of  this  misery,  what  an  awful  thing  it  would 
be  to  think  of !  If  we  knew  who  it  was,  what  an 

1  Cf.  Allen,  "Jonathan  Edwards,"  pp.  128,  129. 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS       III 

awful  sight  it  would  be  to  see  such  a  person  !  How 
might  all  the  rest  of  the  congregation  lift  up  a 
lamentable  and  bitter  cry  over  him  !  But,  alas  ! 
instead  of  one,  how  many  it  is  likely  will  remember 
this  discourse  in  hell !  And  it  would  be  a  wonder 
if  some  that  are  now  present  should  not  be  in  hell 
in  a  very  short  time,  before  this  year  is  out.  And 
it  would  be  no  wonder  if  some  persons  that  now 
sit  here  in  some  seats  of  this  meeting-house,  in 
health  and  quiet  and  secure,  should  be  there  before 
tomorrow  morning'1 

]jWhen  we  remember  that  the  major  premise  of 
his  argument  was  that  "  the  greater  part  of  men  - 
who  have  died  heretofore  have  gone  to  hell,"  that 
it  was  his  constantly  reiterated  belief  that  in  every 
generation  those  who  were  saved  were  in  the  minor- 
ity,1 it  is  possible  to  understand  with  what  crush- 
ing weight  the  message  fell  upon  any  particular 
congregation.  The  chance  of  the  throw  was  against 
every  man  before  the  sermon  began,  and  the  God 
of  the  universe  was  under  no  obligation  to  save  him 
even  after  prayer  and  crying  strong.  It  was  then 
with  almost  the  desperation  of  despair  that  he 
struggled  for  his  possible  chance  of  life  as  over 
against  his  probability  of  eternal  death.  Accord- 
ing to  this  system,  spiritual  growth  could  Jojlow 
only  upon  spiritual  convulsion.  There  was  no 
such  process  in  Edwards'  theology  as  blossoming 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  The  symptoms  of 
deliverance  from  evil  were  tragic  and  appalling. 

1  Cf.  Allen,  op.  cit.,  p.  124. 


112       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

There  was  the  sense  of  awful  danger  and  of  agoniz- 
ing fear,  the  intolerable  burden  of  sin  and  the  ap- 
prehension of  divine  wrath,  and  the  realization  of 
utter  and  almost  abject  dependence  upon  a  higher 
will  for  salvatiofpL 

The  imagery  with  which  Edwards  was  accus- 
tomed to  clothe  his  propositions  of  everlasting 
judgment  is  illustrated  sufficiently  by  such  quota- 
tions as  follow  from  his  sermons  :  — 


You  have  often  seen  a  spider  or  some  other  noisome  in- 
sect when  thrown  into  the  midst  of  a  fierce  fire,  and  have 
observed  how  immediately  it  yields  to  the  force  of  the  flames. 
There  is  no  long  struggle,  no  fighting  against  the  fire,  no 
strength  exerted  to  oppose  the  heat  or  to  fly  from  it.  Here  is 
a  little  image  of  what  you  will  be  in  hell,  except  you  repent 
and  fly  to  Christ.1'1 

Or  this  :  — 

'  <f  The  bow  of  God's  wrath  is  bent  and  the  arrow  made  ready 
on  the  string,  and  justice  bends  the  arrow  at  your  heart,  and 
strains  the  bow  ;  and  it  is  nothing  but  the  mere  pleasure  of 
God  and  that  of  an  angry  God  .  .  .  that  keeps  the  arrow  one 
moment  from  being  made  drunk  with  your  blood."!  \  i  ' 

Again,  in  discussing  hell  torment,  he  says  :  — 

"We  can  conceive  but  little  of  the  matter  ;  but  to  help  your 
conception,  imagine  yourselves  to  be  cast  into  a  fiery  oven,  or 
a  great  furnace,  where  your  pain  would  be  as  much  greater 
than  that  occasioned  by  accidentally  touching  a  coal  of  fire  as 
the  heat  is  greater.  Imagine  also  that  your  body  were  to  lie 
there  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  full  of  fire  and  all  the  while  full 
of  quick  sense.  What  horror  would  you  feel  at  the  entrance 
of  such  a  furnace.  How  long  would  that  quarter  of  an  hour 

1  Edwards,  "Works,"  Vol.  VI,  p.  103. 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS       113 

seem  to  you.  And  after  you  had  endured  it  for  one  minute, 
how  overpowering  would  it  be  to  you  to  think  that  you  had  to 
endure  it  the  other  fourteen.  But  what  would  be  the  effect 
upon  your  soul  if  you  must  lie  there  enduring  that  torment  for 
twenty-four  hours.  And  how  much  greater  would  be  the  effect, 
if  you  knew  you  must  endure  it  for  a  whole  year.  And  how 
vastly  greater  still,  if  you  knew  you  must  endure  it  for  a  thou- 
sand years.  Oh !  then  how  would  your  heart  sink  if  you  knew 
that  you  must  bear  it  for  ever  and  ever —  that  there  would  be 
no  end,  that  for  millions  and  millions  of  ages,  your  torments 
would  be  no  nearer  to  an  end  and  that  you  never,  never  would 
be  delivered.  But  your  torments  in  hell  will  be  immensely 
greater  than  this  illustration  represents." 

Or  read  this  description  of  the  tormenting  devils 
that  peer  through  the  gloom  that  shrouds  the  bed- 
side of  the  dying  sinner. 

"  If  we  imagine  to  ourselves  the  feeling  of  the  little  child 
that  had  been  pursued  by  a  lion,  when  it  is  taken  hold  of  and 
sees  the  terrible  creature  open  his  devouring  jaws  to  tear  it  to 
pieces.  I  say  if  we  could  have  a  perfect  idea  of  the  terror  and 
astonishment  which  a  little  child  has  in  such  a  case,  yet  we 
would  have  but  a  faint  idea  of  what  is  felt  in  the  departing 
soul  of  the  sinner,  when  it  falls  into  the  hands  of  those  cruel 
devils,  those  roaring  lions  which  then  seize  upon  it." 

The  combination^  .such. a  .personality  and  such 
a  message-trpon  the  population  of  New  England 
at  tnat"  period  was  psychologically  if  not  theologi- 
cally predestined  to  produce  much  mental  and 
nervous  disorder.  And  I  do  not  see  how  Edwards 
can  escape  in  some  measure  the  responsibility  for 
it.  It  is  a  great  tribute  to  the  essential  mental 
strength  and  stability  of  New  England  that  no 
worse  effects  were  produced  by  so  mighty  a  cause. 
i 


114       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

I  have  sometimes  pondered  with  dismay  upon  what 
might  have  happened  in  a  Kentucky  camp-meet- 
ing of  half  a  century  later  if  a  Jonathan  Edwards 
had  appeared  upon  the  scene  and  delivered  the 
Enfield  sermon  !  Surely  there  would  have  been 
none  left  but  the  preacher  of  the  occasion  to  bear 
away  the  "  fallen  "  and  the  "  slain."  I  know  that 
Edwards  did  not  regard  many  of  the  bodily  affec- 
tions which  occurred  under  his  own  ministry  as 
the  highest  proofs  of  divine  grace.  They  were  only 
incidental  to  it.  He  was  far  too  keen  a  student  of 
the  human  spirit  to  blunder  so.  And  he  never 
could  abide  "impulses"  and  "impressions."  But 
he  was  an  ardent  apologist  for  the  messages  of 
terror  and  for  many  of  the  unhappy  influences  that 
followed  in  their  wake.  For  years  he  was  by  no 
means  sufficiently  apprehensive  of  the  dread  results 
of  the  encouragement  of  the  many  manifestations 
of  mental  and  nervous  disorder.  He  often  spoke  of 
this  overwhelming  of  soul  and  body  by  a  sense  of 
the  awful  majesty  and  infinite  terribleness  of  the 
wrath  of  God  as  if  it  were  a  natural  and  healthful 
and  divine  phenomenon.  The  sympathetic  propa- 
gation of  strange  nervous  affections  which  he  wit- 
nessed in  his  own  meetings,  especially  among  the 
young,  he  looked  upon  with  complacency.1  Of 
course  the  nature  of  such  disorder  was  not  then 
known,  and  we  have  no  right  to  censure  Edwards 
too  severely.  On  the  whole j  he  stood  for  order 

1  Cf.  Hodge,  "  Constitutional  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  United  States,"  Vol.  II,  p.  51. 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING   WITH    EDWARDS       1 15 

and  wholesome  restraint.  In  later  years  he  seemed 
to  lament  that  he  had  not  in  the  earlier  stages  of 
the  revival  taken  a  more  decided  stand  against  de- 
lusion of  every  form,  and  in  1746  he  published 
that  classic  treatise  on  the  religious  affections  that 
has  gone  far  to  establish  his  reputation  for  sound 
discretion.  For  its  time,  it  exhibited  rare  judg- 
ment and  rational  discrimination.  Of  course  it 
could  not  be  expected  to  anticipate  the  more  radi- 
cal scientific  view  of  modern  psychology.  In  this 
work  he  refers  to  the  imagination  as  the  devil's 
grand  lurking  place,  the  very  nest  of  foul  and  de- 
lusive spirits,  and  affirms  that  "  when  the  affection 
arises  from  the  imagination  and  is  built  upon  it  as 
its  foundation,  instead  of  spiritual  illumination  and 
discovery,  then  is  the  affection,  however  elevated, 
worthless  and  vain."  And  in  passages  of  surpass- 
ing insight  and  power  he  lays  bare  the  principle 
that  is  entirely  acceptable  to  the  most  modern  psy- 
chology of  religious  experience  that,  though  the 
affections  are  the  tap-root  of  true  religion,  yet  the 
test  of  any  one  of  them  is  not  at  all  in  the  quality 
or  character  of  the  emotion  or  in  anything  else  save, 
the  results  that  are  manifest  in  life  and  conduct/ 
As  Professor  William  James  has  put  it,  by  trfeir 
fruits  ye  shall  know  them  and  not  by  their  roots.1 
But  years  before  this  treatise  was  written,  the 
powerful  social  and  psychological  forces  which 
Edwards  had  called  into  action  were  at  work  all 
through  New  England,  and  the  momentum  of  the 

1  James,  "  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,"  p.  20. 


Il6       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

movement  was  too  great  to  be  restrained  by  any 
calm  philosophic  discussion.  However,  the  revival 
ran  its  natural  course  in  the  face  of  a  fire  of  criti- 
cism that  must  have  checked  its  excesses  in  many 
quarters  and  have  furnished  some  considerable 
measure  of  control.  Not  only  Edwards,  in  his  days 
of  calm  afterthought,  but  many  others  stood  as 
breakwaters  against  the  ever  increasing  tides  of 
s  fanaticism  and  delusion  that  rose  and  fell  in  con- 
nection with  the  general  movement.  The  most 
notable  of  these  personal  centres  of  rational  con- 
&!  /trol  was  Dr.  Charles  Chauncy,  pastor  of  the  First 
"Church  in  Boston.  He  was  a  graduate  of  Har- 
vard, sixty  years  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  a  man  dis- 
tinguished both  for  learning  and  spirituality,  withal 
an  ardent  patriot,  —  he  lived  through  nearly  the 
whole  span  of  the  eighteenth  century,  —  and  it  is 
especially  remembered  of  him  that  his  last  days 
were  given  almost  entirely  to  devotional  exercises.1 
This  is  not  the  picture  of  a  "pharisee,"  a  "hypo- 
crite "  or  an  "  unworthy  hireling,"  but  I  suppose 
no  man  of  his  generation  would  have  been  selected 
so  quickly  by  the  radical  friends  of  the  revival  as 
the  original  model  of  each  of  these  ignoble  char- 
acters. This  would  probably  have  been  White- 
field's  opinion,  and  James  Davenport  would  have 
proclaimed  it  from  the  housetops.  For  Daven- 
port was  Chauncy's  special  aversion,  and  with 
good  reason.  The  "Rev.  Mr.  James  Davenport" 
of  Southold,  Long  Island,  a  descendant  in  the  direct 

1  Cf.  Tyerman,  "  Whitefield,"  Vol.  II,  p.  125. 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS       I  I/ 

line  of  the  famous  John  Davenport  of  the  New 
Haven  colony,  was  the  most  prominent  and  the 
most  uncanny  spirit  of  that  whole  group  of  extre- 
mists who,  lacking  the  brain  and  balance  of  Ed- 
wards, urged  to  such  lengths  the  movement  which 
he  inaugurated  that  judicious  men  to  this  day  find 
it  difficult  to  decide  whether  there  was  in  it  more 
of  good  than  evil,  whether  the  very  many  trans- 
formations of  character  and  conduct  which  appeared 
to  be  genuine  and  normal  were  not  after  all  pur- 
chased at  too  great  a  social  cost.  The  other  noto- 
rious members  of  this  company  of  extremists  who 
shared  Davenport's  spirit  and  method  were  Barber, 
Pomeroy,  Wheelock,  Allen  and  Bliss.  At  this 
pointiChauncy  is  the  most  important  contemporary 
source.  He  was  a  great  protagonist  of  order  and 
righteous  conduct  as  over  against  "  the  things  of 
a  bad  and  dangerous  tendency,"  of  which  he  wrote 
in  his  famous  sermon  published  in  1742,  and  his 
more  pretentious  work  of  1743  entitled  "Season- 
able Thoughts  on  the  State  of  Religion  in  New  Eng- 
land." The  radical  strictures  of  this-  book  upon 
the  revival  as  a  whole  we  may  not  be  prepared  to 
accept  in  their  entirety.  Chauncy  needs  compari- 
son with  Jonathan  Edwards.  Chauncy  argued 
that  the  revival  must  be  of  the  devil  because  it 
v,-orked  out  into  so  great  extravagance  and  excess. 
Edwards  contended  ultimately  that  while  the  pe- 
culiar emotional  "affections"  in  themselves  were 
nothing,  they  might  coexist  with  a  real  work  of 
grace.  But  abundant  evidence  of  the  prevalent 


Il8       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

irrationality  and  disorder  appears  in  the  writings  of 
both  these  observers,  though  they  received  the 
V  more  powerful  portrayal  in  Chauncy.  And  with 
respect  to  this  important  group  of  New  Light  ex- 
tremists of  the  Davenport  persuasion,  Chauncy 
V^  was  thoroughly  right  in  his  main  contention.  The 
extremists  practically  believed  that  enthusiastic 
emotion  is  ever  a  certain  sign  of  the  presence  of 
the  divine  spirit,  a  clear  proof  that  God's  saving 
grace  is  at  work  in  the  heart.  Therefore,  they 
always  had  a  simple  test  of  their  own  conversion, 
and  of  the  regeneration  of  their  fellow-men  —  es- 
pecially of  their  fellow-ministers.  In  their  eyes, 
an  enthusiastic  emotional  experience  speedily  dis- 
criminated the  hireling  from  the  shepherd.  And 
it  was  only  a  step,  as  it  has  always  been,  from  this 
doctrine  to  a  belief  in  their  own  direct  inspiration. 
Dreams,  visions,  impulses,  scriptural  texts  suddenly 
occurring  to  the  memory  —  what  were  they  but  the 
mind  of  God  directing  them  as  to  what  they  should 
speak  and  in  what  path  they  should  move  ?  lAnd 
of  course  the  violent  shriekings,  faintings,  trem- 
blings under  this  stress  of  emotion  were  indubitable 
evidences  of  divine  indwelling.  Against  such  blind 
heresy  of  ignorance  Chauncy  spoke  out  trumpet- 
toned.  And  it  was  well  for  New  England  in  such, 
a  crisis  of  delusion  that  he  and  others  did  so  speak^ 
The  personality  of  the  above-mentioned  James 
»  Davenport,  as  I  have  said,  especially  attracted 
Chauncy's  opprobrium.  It  is  somewhat  discon- 
certing to  find  the  said  Davenport  lauded  in 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING   WITH    EDWARDS       1 19 

Whitefield's  journal  as  one  of  the  most  godly  and 
useful  men  whom  he  met  in  America.  But  it  is 
comprehensible,  after  all.  Whitefield  was  of  much 
better  mental  and  moral  balance  than  Davenport, 
but  the  two  men  had  similar  beliefs  with  respect  to 
"  impulses  "  and  "  impressions,"  and  were  consid- 
erably alike  in  their  censorious  estimates  of  others. 
On  the  whole,  Chauncy's  view  of  the  man  fits  the 
evidence  much  better  than  Whitefield's.  This  Mr. 
Davenport  was  especially  noted  for  his  power  to 
produce  agony  and  distress,  fallings,  faintings, 
tremblings  and  shriekings.  He  would  thus  ad- 
dress himself  to  a  congregation  :  "  You  poor  un- 
converted creatures  in  the  seats,  in  the  pews,  in 
the  galleries,  I  wonder  you  do  not  drop  into  hell. 
It  would  not  surprise  me  if  I  should  see  you  drop 
this  minute.  You  Pharisees,  hypocrites,  now,  now 
you  are  sinking  into  the  pit."  And  then  he  would 
leap  and  clap  his  hands  and  shout,  "  The  war  goes 
on,  the  fight  goes  on,  the  devil  goes  down."  Vis- 
ions, trances  and  impressions  were  his  guide  to 
conduct.  He  believed  that  he  had  the  power  of 
discerning  spirits,  and  when  he  entered  a  town, 
he  first  hied  himself  to  the  house  of  the  minister 
to  observe  whether  he  was  really  converted.  And 
if  the  poor  man  were  disinclined  to  grant  him  free 
access  to  the  pulpit,  or  in  other  respects  did  not 
attain  to  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  Davenport's 
lofty  zeal,  he  would  publicly  denounce  him  as  a 
wolf  in  sheep's  clothing  and  seek  to  draw  off  to 
another  camp  the  faithful  who  would  follow,  leav- 


I2O       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

ing  the  "  ungodly  "  sometimes  in  consternation  and 
dismay  in  the  clutches  of  their  formerly  revered 
pastor.  He  believed  that  he  had  the  gift  of  heal- 
ing and  attempted  to  exercise  it  on  a  dumb,  men- 
tally unbalanced  woman  in  a  parish  next  to  his 
own.  He  spent  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  with 
her  in  the  company  of  a  group  of  his  admiring 
brethren,  prophesying  that  on  a  certain  day  she 
would  recover.1  As  it  happened,  the  poor  woman 
died  on  that  day.  When  this  was  brought  to 
Davenport's  attention,  he  responded  that  his  faith 
was  verified,  "  for  that  she  was  delivered  by  being 
received  to  heaven."  He  soon  became  such  a  pub- 
lic nuisance  that  he  was  haled  before  the  General 
Assembly  of  Connecticut,  and  among  other  things 
it  was  proved  against  him  that  "he  endeavored 
by  unwarrantable  means  to  terrify  and  affect  his 
hearers,  by  pretending  some  extraordinary  discov- 
ery and  assurance  of  the  very  near  approach  of 
the  end  of  the  world,  by  an  indecent  and  affected 
imitation  of  the  agony  and  passion  of  our  blessed 
Saviour,  and  also,  by  voice  and  gesture,  of  the  sur- 
prise, horror,  amazement  of  persons  supposed  to 
be  sentenced  to  eternal  misery,  and  by  a  too 
peremptory  and  unconditional  denouncing  of  dam- 
nation against  such  of  his  auditory  as  he  looked 
upon  as  opposers,  vehemently  crying  out  that  he 
saw  hell  flames  flashing  in  their  faces." 2  The 
Assembly  took  the  magnanimous  ground  that  he 
was  the  victim  of  enthusiastic  impulses,  but  or- 
1  Chauncy,  "  Seasonable  Thoughts,"  p.  190.  2  Ibid.,  p.  98. 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS       121 

dcred  him  deported  from  the  colony.  He  now  re- 
garded  himself  as  in  the  happy  company  of  those 
who  are  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake,  and 
it  was  not  long  before  he  was  under  indictment  by 
the  grand  jury  in  the  city  of  Boston  for  a  breach 
of  public  order.  One  of  the  witnesses  testified 
that,  on  one  occasion  on  Copp's  hill,  he  had  heard 
him  offer  this  prayer  —  "  Good  Lord,  I  will  not 
mince  the  matter  any  longer  with  Thee.  Thou 
knowest  that  I  know  that  most  of  the  ministers  of 
Boston  and  of  the  country  are  unconverted  and 
are  leading  their  people  blindfold  to  hell."  l  The 
crowning  act  of  his  erratic  career  was  performed 
in  New  London  in  1743.  He  professed  to  have 
received  it  from  the  Lord  in  a  dream  that  his 
adherents  should  put  away  from  among  themselves 
everything  in  which  they  delighted  —  "  wigs,  cloaks 
and  breeches,  hoods,  gowns,  rings,  jewels  and  neck- 
laces must  all  be  brought  together  into  one  heap 
into  his  chamber  that  they  might  by  his  solemn 
decree  be  committed  to  the  flames."  The  collec- 
tion of  "idols"  also  included  some  choice  books  of 
devotion  by  distinguished  and  saintly  men.  It  is 
recorded  that  Davenport  fell  ill  just  before  the 
time  of  conflagration  came  and  that  his  followers  re- 
laxed their  principles  in  the  matter  of  the  wearing 
apparel,  but  did  burn  the  volumes,  solemnly  assur- 
ing the  assembled  audience  "  that  the  smoke  of  the 
torments  of  such  of  the  authors  of  the  above-said 
books  as  died  in  the  same  belief  as  when  they  set 

1  Tracy,  "  The  Great  Awakening,"  p.  247. 


122       PRIMITIVE   TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

them  out,  was  now  ascending  in  hell,  in  like  man- 
ner as  they  saw  the  smoke  of  these  books  arise."  l 

The  delirium  had  now  run  its  course  with  Daven- 
port, who  soon  after  publicly  recanted  and  apolo- 
gized for  his  irrational  procedure.  His  colleague, 
Barber,  went  still  further  in  his  claims  of  imme- 
diate impression  by  the  Spirit.  He  became  an 
itinerant  exhorter,  "took  no  money  with  him, 
neither  change  of  apparel  nor  shoes,  but  was 
shod  with  boots,  and  as  he  passed  along  ...  he 
publicly  declared  that  he  had  laid  aside  all  study 
and  forethought  of  what  he  should  deliver  .  .  .  and 
depended  wholly  on  the  immediate  direction  of 
the  Holy  Ghost."  Finally  he  settled  down  in  one 
hapless  community,  "where  he  abode  some  months; 
neither  could  he  be  persuaded  to  remove  thence, 
but  led  an  inactive,  idle  life  until  he  was  grown 
very  fat  and  ragged,  alleging  in  his  justification 
that  he  had  received  no  direction  from  the  Spirit 
to  remove  thence,  and  must  remain  stationed  there 
so  long  as  the  cloud  abode  upon  the  tabernacle."  z 

The  doctrines  and  the  methods  of  these  men  be- 
came a  menace  not  only  to  common  law  and  order, 
but  to  intellectual  integrity  and  moral  decency. 
Learning  and  the  schools  were  mocked  at,  and 
even  licentiousness  was  practised  by  some  under 
the  sanction  of  a  "  revelation,"  as  it  was  later  on 
under  the  same  species  of  emotional  excitement 
in  spiritualism  and  Mormonism. 

After  enumerating  the  many  and  dreadful  effects 

1  Chauncy,  op.  tit.,  pp.  220-223.  2  Ibid.,  p.  184. 


AWAKENING   ORIGINATING   WITH    EDWARDS       123 

of  fear  and  vagary,  such  as  falling  on  the  ground 
and  lying  for  a  time  speechless  and  motionless, 
convulsions,  screaming,  besides  unmentionable  in- 
decencies, Chauncy  affirms  that  they  did  not  seem 
to  be  accidental  nor  peculiar  to  any  locality,  but  to 
have  been  very  general.  "  Numbers  in  a  congre- 
gation —  ten,  twenty,  thirty,  would  be  in  the  same 
condition  at  the  same  time ;  nay  hundreds  in  some 
places,  to  the  opening  of  such  a  horrible  scene  as 
can  scarce  be  described  in  words."  1  It  is  easy  to 
read  between  the  lines  the  influence  of  hypnotic 
conditions  and  of  suggestion.  "  I  have  been 
present,"  he  says,  "  when  an  air  of  seriousness 
reigned  visibly  through  the  whole  congregation. 
They  were  all  silent  and  attentive,  having  their  eyes 
fastened  on  the  minister  as  though  they  would 
catch  every  word  that  came  from  his  mouth.  And 
yet  because  they  did  not  cry  or  swoon  away,  they 
were  upbraided  with  their  hardness  of  heart,  and 
every  topic  made  use  of,  with  all  the  voice  and 
action  the  minister  was  master  of,  to  bring  forward 
a  general  shrieking  in  the  assembly."  The  effect 
was  often  increased  by  the  indirect  suggestion  of 
the  wonderful  results  wrought  by  the  same  sermon 
elsewhere,  the  congregation  having  been  speedily 
melted  and  dissolved,  and  so  overpowered  that 
they  fell  down  as  if  struck  dead.2 

A  friend,  whose  character  and  capacity  for  mak- 
ing observations  Chauncy  declares  can  be  relied 
upon,  wrote  a  letter,  a  part  of  which  is  published  in 

1  Chauncy,  op.  fit.,  p.  76.  2  Ibid.,  p.  93. 


124      PKIM1TIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

the  "  Seasonable  Thoughts."  1  ^e  tells  of  the  ter- 
ror and  consternation  which  reigned  in  the  audience 
under  the  influence  of  the  terrible  manner  and  mes- 
sage of  the  exhorter,  "which  sometimes  spread 
through  a  large  part  of  the  assembly  in  a  few  min- 
utes from  its  first  appearance.  I  have  seen  the 
'  struck '  and  distressed  brought  together  by  them- 
selves from  the  several  parts  of  the  assembly  .  .  . 
the  poor  creatures  fainting,  screeching  and  bitterly 
crying  out."  On  another  occasion  "about  half  a 
score  of  young  women  were  thrown  into  violent 
hysteric  fits.  I  carefully  observed  them.  When 
the  preacher  grew  calm  and  moderate  in  manner, 
though  the  things  delivered  were  equally  awaken- 
ing, the  young  women  by  degrees  grew  calm  and 
still.  When  he  again  .  .  .  spake  like  thunder,  the 
like  violent  strugglings  immediately  returned  upon 
them.  Sometimes  he  put  the  emphasis  upon  little 
unmeaning  words,  and  delivered  a  sentence  of  no 
importance  with  mighty  energy,  yet  the  sensible 
effect  was  as  great  as  when  the  most  awful  truth 
was  brought  to  view."  Of  course  this  same  phe- 
nomenon can  be  seen  again  and  again  under  negro 
preaching  in  the  South,  where  the  continued  violent 
enunciation  of  the  word  "  Mesopotamia  "  has  been 
known  to  throw  an  audience  of  blacks  into  the 
wildest  religious  excitement. 

Chauncy  reprints  also  a  bit  of  evidence  from  the 
Boston  Postboy,  pointing  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  attempt  of  the  many  itinerant  preachers  and 

1  Chauncy,  op.  tit.,  p.  94. 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS       I 

cxhorters  who  were  suddenly  developed  under  the 
stress  of  the  revival,  was  to  terrify  the  imagination 
and  heighten  the  effect  of  their  speech  by  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  extraordinary  things  that  took  place 
where  recently  they  were,  and  by  affirming  that  the 
audience  now  before  them  is  made  up  "  of  the  last 
hardened  wretches  that  stand  out,  that  this  is  the 
last  call  that  ever  they  are  likely  to  hear,  that  hell 
fire  now  flashes  in  their  faces,  that  the  devil  stands  / 
ready  to  seize  upon  them  —  and  they  will  often/ 
times  repeat  the  awful  words,  'damned!  damned ! 
damned!'  three  or  four  times  over." 

It  would  be  possible,  if  there  were  need  of  it,  to 
adduce  other  evidence  to  the  same  effect  from  other 
sources.  Whitefield  himself,  with  his  splendid 
power,  and,  on  the  whole,  sane  influence  over  the 
emotions  of  all  classes  of  society,  drew  at  times  the 
unsparing  criticism  of  thoughtful  and  earnest  men 
on  this  side  of  the  water.  He  was  imaginative, 
superstitious,  much  given  to  "  impressions,"  a  man 
of  impulse  rather  than  of  judgment.  Jonathan 
Edwards  cautioned  him  against  some  of  his  weak- 
nesses, as  other  true  friends  had  done  before,  but 
it  seemed  to  the  great  Northampton  preacher  that 
Whitefield  "  liked  him  not  so  well  for  opposing 
these  things."1  When  the  bodily  agitations  sud- 
denly appeared  so  vigorously  under  Wesley  in 
England,  Whitefield  opposed  them  with  vehe- 
mence, but  soon  grew  very  mild  in  his  disapproval. 

1  Quoted  in  Bacon,  "  History  of  American  Christianity,"  p. 
169. 


126      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

And  in  a  number  of  instances,  notably  in  Kilsyth, 
Scotland,  and  at  Nottingham  and  Fogg's  Manor 
in  this  country,  he  gave  every  evidence  of  encour- 
aging these  manifestations.  When  the  people 
cried  out  all  about  him  so  that  they  drowned  his 
voice  and  fainted  here  and  there,  he  says  he  never 
saw  a  more  glorious  sight.1  He  also  became  very 
vain  and  critical  after  his  successes  in  America. 
He  does  not  escape  Chauncy's  lash  for  his  censori- 
ousness  and  the  aid  and  comfort  which  he  lent 
to  all  manner  of  fanaticism.  In  fact,  Chauncy  de- 
clares that  the  censorious  spirit  which  developed  to 
such  a  hateful  extent  in  Davenport  and  the  other 
extremists  appeared  first  in  Whitefield,  who  seldom 
delivered  a  sermon  "  but  he  had  something  or  other 
in  it  against  unconverted  ministers,  and  he  ex- 
pressed his  fears  in  his  journal  of  New  England  that 
'  many,  nay  the  most  that  preached,  did  not  experi- 
mentally know  Christ.'  " 2  Gilbert  Tennent  imi- 
tated him,  and  rash  and  bitter  judging  became  very 
common  in  New  England,  "  parents  condemning 
their  children  and  children  their  parents,  husbands 
their  wives  and  wives  their  husbands,  masters  their 
servants  and  servants  their  masters,  ministers  their 
people  and  people  their  ministers."3  The  excel- 
lent David  Brainerd  fell  somewhat  under  the 
malign  influence  of  Davenport,  and  was  expelled 
from  Yale  for  attacking  the  piety  of  the  college 

1  Cf.  Hodge,  "  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the  United 
States,"  p.  84  f. 

2  Chauncy,  op,  cit,,  p.  140  f.  8  Ibid,,  p.  169. 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS       I2/ 

faculty.1  And  so  it  went  on  all  over  New  England. 
Whitefield  opened  fire  upon  Yale  and  Harvard. 
"  Their  light  has  now  become  darkness,"  he  said  in 
his  journal.  He  had  been  invited  to  preach  before 
Harvard  on  the  occasion  of  his  second  visit  to  this 
country,  but  when  he  came,  in  1744,  the  faculty  of 
that  college  branded  him  in  a  published  statement  as 
"an  uncharitable,  censorious  and  slanderous  man." 
There  is  little  doubt  that  in  this  direction  Whitefield 
exerted  a  baneful  influence,  but  it  should  be  said  to 
his  everlasting  credit  that  he  afterwards  met  these 
and  other  charges  in  most  beautiful  temper,  de- 
fended himself  against  some  misrepresentations 
with  much  success,  and  confessed  humbly  that  his 
censorious  onslaught  had  been  a  grievous  wrong. 
It  is  a  clear  case  of  overexcitement  of  enthusiastic 
impulses  by  the  revival.  It  was  not  native  to  the 
man, 

In  seeking  to  strike  a  balance  of  the  evil  and  the 
good  in  this  religious  movement,  we"afe  conlroriTScf 
"with  much  divergent  testimony.  On  the  one  hand 
we  have  the  record  of  the  rather  large  increase 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  regular  Congregational 
churches  in  New  England  between  1740  and  1760. 
Upon  the  testimony  of  Rev.  Ezra  Styles,  afterward 
president  of  Yale,  these  were  none  of  them  separa- 
tist churches  created  by  the  deplorable  divisions 
which  characterized  the  revival,  and  the  number  at 
least  indicates  that  religious  interest  for  a  time 
kept  pace  with  the  increase  of  population  and 

1  Tracy,  "Great  Awakening,"  p.  237. 


128     PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REyiVALS 

perhaps  somewhat  outstripped  it.  KVe  have  also 
the  statement  of  Edwards  and  others  "that  great 
numbers  of  persons  were  so  alarmed  as  to  "imme- 
diately quit  their  sinful  practices,"  1  and  we  may 
well  believe  that  a  new  centre  of  character  became— u. 
sovereign  in  a  relatively  large  number  of  instances, 
the  imprecatory  Edwards  was  by  no  means 
fe  whole  man.  Through  the  abolition  of  the 
Half  Way  Covenant,  he  laid  in  New  England 
V  the  foundation  of  the  separation  of  church  and 
*"  state  which  became  a  basal  principle  for  the 
nation.  He  enunciated  and  defended  such  en- 
during and  uplifting  theological  beliefs  as  the 
sovereign  immanence  of  God  and  the  immediate 
action  of  the  divine  spirit  upon  the  human.  Out 
of  the  theological  debates  of  the  Old  Lights  and 
the  New,  there  grew  up  in  the  years  that  fol-' 
lowed  a  much  modified  Calvinism  which  made 
it  a  vastly  more  useful  tool  in  religious  practice. 
The  post-Edwardean  church  became  a  better 
instrument  of  social  reform,  just  because  it  gave 
fit  recognition  to  the  element  of  emotion,  with- 
out which  as  a  driving  force  social  betterment 
never  comes.  It  was  Hopkins,  the  pupil  of 
Edwards,  who  led  the  movement  for  the  aboli- 
tion of  slavery  in  New  England.  Through  the 
religious  enthusiasm  of  other  individual  leaders, 
such  as  Wheelock,  who  founded  Dartmouth,  there 
were  important  contributions  made  to  education. 
1  Edwards,  "Works,"  Vol.  IV,  p.  31. 


V 

^  ^  -  *~ 

w  &    "• 

NING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS        I2Q 

.fT 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  the  sad  record  of 
churches  rent  and  torn  by  faction.      There  were 
the  Old  Lights,  who  were  unalterably  opposed  to 
the  revival  on  grounds  both  doctrinal  and    prac- 
tical.   {And  of   the  New  Lights  there  were  two 
divisionsTthe  Edwards  group  and  the  extremists.  " 
It    is    an    interesting    comparison    that    whereas  > 
in  Kentucky  the  revival  gave  birth  to  new  sects,  " 
which  have  long  maintained  their  independence, 
in  New  England  the  lines  of  cleavage  were  mainly  - 
in  theological  thinking  and  practical  method  which 
time  has  largely  obliterated.  \ 

We  have,  too,  the  disheartening  chronicle  of 
mental  and  nervous  disorder  ranging  from  the 
swoon  to  the  suicide.  The  atmosphere  of  morbid 
suggestion  which  was  developed  in  the  awful  ten- 
sion of  the  revival  would  seem  incredible,  if  we 
did  not  have  Edwards'  word  for  it  j  In  the  month 
of  May,  1735,  after  the .  first  wtfffer  of  the  awak- 
ening in  Northampton,  a  man,  well  and  favorably 
known  in  the  community,  suddenly  developed 
melancholia  and  cut  his  throat.  Let  Edwards 
relate  the  sequel. 

"After  this,  multitudes  in  this  and  other  towns 
seemed  to  have  it  strongly  suggested  to  them  and 
pressed  upon  them  to  do  as  this  person  had  done. 
And  many  that  seemed  to  be  under  no  melancholy, 
some  pious  persons  that  had  no  special  darkness 
or  doubts  about  the  goodness  of  their  state,  nor 
were  under  any  special  trouble  or  concern  of  mind 


I3O      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

at  anything  spiritual  or  temporal,  yet  had  it  urged 
upon  them,  as  if  somebody  had  spoken  to  them, 
'Cut  your  own  throat !  Now  is  a  good  opportunity. 
Now !  Now ! '  So  that  they  were  obliged  to  fight 
with  all  their  might  to  resist  it,  and  yet  no  reason 
suggested  to  them  why  they  should  do  it."  1 

On  the  unfavorable  side  of  the  ledger,  too,  we 
have  the  (reign  of  religious  terror,  the  fanaticism, 
the  delusion,  the  censoriousness,  the  immorality^ 
And  we  have  something  more.  We  have  melan- 
choly evidence  of  the  profound  reaction  that  set 
in  at  once  and  continued  for  a  half  century.  And 
the  evidence  is  the  strongest  at  the  very  centre  of 
impulse  of  the  whole  movement,  namely  North- 
ampton. We  have  the  facts  and  figures  of  the 
rise  and  fall  in  Edwards.  During  the  winter  of 
1734-1735  more  than  three  hundred  persons  were 
received  into  the  church  as  "  true  converts."  2  In 
1736  the  number  of  communicants  was  almost  co- 
extensive with  the  adult  population  of  the  town. 
In  1740-1742  there  were  still  other  additions,  and 
the  work  was  esteemed  by  Edwards  singularly  free 
from  unworthy  and  extravagant  "affections."  And 
yet  in  1744  Edwards  writes:  "  There  has  been  a 
vast  alteration  within  two  years.  God  was  pro- 
voked at  the  spiritual  pride  and  self-confidence 
of  the  people  and  withdrew  from  them.  Iniquity 
abounds,  and  the  love  of  many  has  grown  cold. 
Multitudes  of  fair  and  high  professors  have  back- 

1  Quoted  in  Allen,  "Jonathan  Edwards,"  p.  159. 

2  Edwards,  "  Works,"  Vol.  IV,  p.  28. 


AWAKENING    ORIGINATING    WITH    EDWARDS       l$l 

slidden,  sinners  are  desperately  hardened,  experi- 
mental religion  is  more  than  ever  out  of  credit 
with  far  the  greater  part."  l 

From  1 744  to  1 748  the  church  was  utterly  dead 
to  spiritual  things,  not  a  single  application  being 
made  for  admission  to  membership.2  And  notice 
what  follows.  In  the  fall  of  1748,  when  Edwards 
had  been  twenty  years  a  pastor,  and  the  flame  of 
revival  had  had  so  full  and  free  an  opportunity  to 
purify  the  church,  what  happened  ?  Not  only  his 
own  membership  but  the  neighboring  churches 
turned  against  him  in  sufficient  numbers  to  cast 
him  out  of  his  pastorate  by  a  majority  of  one  vote 
in  the  council,  and  exile  him  to  Stockbridge  and 
the  Indians,  where  he  wrote  the  "  Freedom  of  the 
Will,"  and  whence  he  was  called  to  the  presidency 
of  Princeton.  And  this  was  done  in  an  atmosphere 
of  acrirnony  most  bitter  and  slander  most  gross. 
These  were  the  same  people  who  a  few  years  be- 
fore had  held  a  solemn  service  of  thanksgiving,  and 
had  made  public  vows  of  many  things,  especially 
to  refrain  from  evil  speaking,  and  from  everything 
that  feeds  the  spirit  of  bitterness,  to  do  nothing 
in  the  spirit  of  revenge.8  But  because  this  man 
Edwards  took  them  at  their  word,  and  attempted 
to  set  up  a  fair  standard  of  religious  purpose  and 
profession,  their  vows  were  disclosed  as  Prince 
Rupert  drops,  which  broke  as  soon  as  they  were 

1  Dwight, "  Life  of  Edwards,"  p.  467. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  438,  quoted  in  Hodge,  op,  cit.t  p.  74. 
•  Ibid.t  p.  166  f. 


132       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 


cooled.  It  is  a  very  perfect  bit  of  testimony  that 
Ithe  influence  of  the  revival,  even  at  its  healthiest 
centre,  had  not  sunk  very  deeply  into  character^ 
It  reminds  us  of  many  another  piece  of  impulsive 
social  action,  whose  retiring  wave  left  little  trace  of 
cood  behind. 

Arj,d  what  of  the  next  fifty  years  in  New  Eng- 
land? It  is  doubtful  if  that  section  of  the  nation 
ever  touched  a  point  nearer  the  low-water  mark  of 
popular  indifference  to  the  religious  and  moral 
life.  There  was  more  than  one  reason  for  this. 
Matters  military  and  political  absorbed  the  energies 
of  the  people.  But  I  think  we  should  not  fail  to 
include  among  the  causes  of  religious  lethargy, 
the  revolt  against  the  excesses  and  the  reaction 
against  the  stormy  excitements  of  the  "great 


CHAPTER   IX 

JOHN   WESLEY   AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL   EVOLUTION    IN 
THE    EIGHTEENTH   CENTURY 

WE  have  seen  that  the  Scotch-Irish  revival  in 
Ulster  was  imitated  from  America.  It  would  be 
far  too  much  to  say  that  the  Wesleyan  revival  was 
an  imitation  of  Edwards.  The  germinating  centre 
of  the  great  English  revival  was  the  little  group 
who  met  as  the  Holy  Club  at  Oxford,  and  par- 
ticularly the  foremost  genius  of  that  group,  John 
Wesley.  But  it  is  perhaps  not  idle  to  observe  that 
Jonathan  Edwards  and  the  somewhat  earlier  New 
England  religious  interest  may  have  had  an  in- 
fluence. Edwards'  account  of  the  Northampton 
revival  of  1734-1735  found  its  way  at  once  to  Eng- 
land and  attracted  much  attention  there.  Wesley 
has  told  us  in  his  journal  that  he  read  it  with  pro- 
found thankfulness  and  emotion  during  a  walk  from 
London  to  Oxford  in  1738.  The  wonderful  "bodily 
effects "  which  Edwards  described  had  not  yet 
occurred  in  England,  although  they  followed  soon 
under  Wesley,  and  there  had  been  at  this  time  no 
such  outburst  of  emotional  enthusiasm  as  later 
came  to  pass.1 

1  Cf.  note  bottom  p.  134,  Allen,  "Jonathan  F.dwards." 
133 


134      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

However,  the  English  movement  had  not  only 
an  originating  personality  of  its  own,  but  antecedent 
conditions  of  its  own.  The  England  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century  is  in  many  ways  a  lamentable  spec- 
tacle, but  there  was  no  country  in  Europe,  after  all, 
in  which  there  was  such  a  measure  of  liberty. 
And  as  prosperity  is  always  the  offspring  of  liberty, 
England  was  prosperous  ;  she  was  growing  in  trade 
and  commerce,  her  ancient  towns  were  strengthened 
and  new  towns  rose  within  her  borders.  But  in- 
creased prosperity  brought  a  largely  increased 
population,  and  England  was  neither  socially, 
politically  nor  religiously  ready  to  care  for  the 
added  multitude  of  her  children.  The  small 
governing  class  was  benevolent  enough  in  its 
purpose  towards  the  great  mass  below,  would  not 
wittingly  have  oppressed  them,  but  it  never  really 
lifted  a  finger  for  their  elevation,  their  enlighten- 
ment, their  progress.  There  was  an  utter  neglect 
of  schools  and  mental  training.  The  universities 
themselves  were  in  a  state  of  intellectual  decay. 
Public  order  and  social  discipline  were  pitiably 
weak,  as  is  evidenced  by  the  great  activity  of 
mobs  on  the  one  hand  and  the  extreme  severity 
of  the  laws  on  the  other.  The  small  farmers 
were  bearing  a  weight  of  pauperism  that,  later 
on,  well-nigh  crushed  them.  And  the  multitudes, 
who  knew  no  other  pleasure,  took  to  the  drinking 
of  gin,  with  which  intoxicant  the  country  had 
recently  become  familiar.  In  1736  it  is  affirmed 
that  every  sixth  building  in  London  was  a  gin-shop, 


WESLEY   AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       135 

and  the  keepers  thereof  promised  on  posted  placard 
to  get  a  man  drunk  for  a  penny,  dead  drunk  for 
twopence  and  furnish  him  with  a  straw  pallet  in 
the  cellar  upon  which  to  sleep  off  his  debauch.1 

And  as  for  the  state  on  its  ecclesiastical  side, 
namely  the  church,  this  arm  of  social  control  had 
utterly  withered  from  disuse.  It  may  almost  be 
said  that  the  church  was  absolutely  without  power 
or  influence  in  the  upper  or  lower  ranks  of  society. 
It  was  only  a  feeble  appendage  to  the  state  in  the 
early  eighteenth  century.  Not  by  the  addition  of 
a  single  parish  had  the  increase  in  population  been 
met.  It  was  an  age  of  political  prelates,  of  absentee 
bishops  and  fox-hunting  parsons.  Montesquieu 
crossed  the  channel  during  that  period  and 
remarked  of  the  fashionable  ladies  and  gentlemen 
whom  he  met,  "  Every  one  laughs  if  one  talks  of 
religion."  To  make  the  matter  far  worse,  the 
upper  ranks  were  unintelligent,  and  immoral  and 
vulgar,  too,  beyond  anything  ever  known  in  Eng- 
land. 

And  the  lower  ranks  ?  Never  a  ray  of  vitalizing 
warmth  and  light  permeated  them  from  the  stratum 
overhead.  They  were  in  a  worse  than  primitive 
condition.  They  were  ignorant  and  brutal,  it  is 
true.  But  they  were  also  in  the  shadow  of  that 
cold,  opaque  body  of  political  and  religious  aristo- 
crats above.  They  were  neglected.  They  were 
hardened.  They  cared  for  the  satisfaction  of 

1  Cf.  Green,  "A  Short  History  of  the  English  People,"  Vol.  IV, 
p.  ibiof. 


136      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

appetite  and  passion  and  for  naught  else,  either  in 
this  life  or  that  to  come. 

It  is  clear  that  this  is  not  a  case  of  relative  bad- 
ness. The  evidence  is  cumulative  and  overwhelm- 
ing that  England  was  in  a  glacial  epoch  of  her 
political,  ethical  and  religious  life.  There  was  per- 
haps nothing  that  characterized  this  period  more 
precisely  than  a  dampened  enthusiasm,  an  emo- 
tional deadness.  The  dread  of  political  and  eccle- 
siastical strife  and  passion  was  bred  in  the  bone  of 
the  ruling  classes,  as  the  result  of  the  experiences 
of  Puritan  revolution  in  the  preceding  century.  It 
was  not  rational  control  of  emotion.  It  was  an 
irrational  and  systematic  repression  of  moral  en- 
thusiasm. But  let  no  man  believe  that  this 
unnatural  psychological  condition  could  be  main- 
tained forever  in  a  fresh  and  growing  population. 
There  were  powerful  instincts  and  needs  of  human 
nature  that  craved  satisfaction.  There  were  great 
slumbering  passional  forces  that  demanded  an  out- 
let. And  nothing  could  permanently  have  re- 
strained them.  But  it  was  given  to  one  man, 
above  others,  to  awaken  suddenly  these  slumber- 
ing energies  of  the  human  spirit,  and  direct  them 
in  channels  of  national  helpfulness  and  the  social 
weal.  It  was  the  great  privilege  of  John  Wesley 
to  have  been  endowed  with  such  genius  for  leader- 
ship over  seemingly  inert  multitudes  of  men,  such 
practical  sense  of  what  was  lacking  in  the  life  of  the 
nation,  such  capacity  for  action,  that  he  was  able  to 
exercise  profound  influence  upon  the  social  evolu- 
tion of  the  English  people. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       137 

Ultimately,  the  whole  establishment  of  church 
and  state  felt  the  inspiration  of  the  religious  move- 
ment of  which  he  was  the  embodiment,  but  his 
work  primarily  was  done  with  and  for  the  masses 
of  the  population  from  the  lower  middle  class 
downward.  Not  only  the  plain  people  of  the 
trades  and  the  towns,  but  the  neglected  and  hard- 
ened wherever  he  and  his  followers  could  find 
them  —  the  colliers  of  Kingswood,  the  wreckers  of 
Cornwall,  the  profligate  soldiers  of  the  king,  the 
neglected,  the  vicious,  the  brutal  —  there  was 
breathed  upon  them  all  the  breath  of  a  new  and 
larger  life.  Wesley's  appeal  was  to  the  divineness 
in  the  human  soul,  the  bit  of  godlikeness  that  in 
his  belief  was  never  absent  from  man  made  in  the 
Creator's  image.  Like  Luther  he  would  set  the 
individual  free,  and  like  Edwards  he  would  hold 
to  the  immediate  action  of  the  divine  upon  the 
human  spirit.  And  every  man  shall  know  that  he 
is  free  and  that  God  hath  unbound  his  fetters.1 
Wesley's  preaching  and  practice  were  not  with- 
out extravagances,  and  some  of  his  followers  were 
under  far  more  grievous  bondage  in  this  respect 
than  he,  but  in  the  main  his  message  was  sane  and 
hopeful.  It  was  a  long  step  in  advance  of  the 


1  In  a  letter  written  in  1768,  Wesley  made  the  distinction  between 
the  full  assurance  of  the  few  and  the  ordinary  assurance  of  the 
average  man  subject  to  doubt  and  fear.  When  the  average  assur- 
ance was  lacking,  he  believed  it  to  be  the  result  of  "  disorder  of 
body  or  ignorance  of  the  gospel  promises."  Letter  to  Dr.  Ruther- 
furth. 


138       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

"  abstract  inhumanity  "  of  Edwards,  who  affirmed 
again  and  again  that  each  generation  must  present 
the  major  portion  of  her  sons  and  daughters  as  an 
offering  to  the  Moloch  of  damnation,  and  that  it 
was  likely  that  many  of  every  congregation  to 
which  he  spoke  would  remember  his  discourse  in 
the  midst  of  torment  intolerable  and  everlasting. 

John  Wesley  was  the  soul  of  the  great  move- 
ment which  bears  his  name.  We  shall,  therefore, 
do  well  to  examine  into  the  nature  of  his  distin- 
guished personality.  And  the  first  thing  that  im- 
presses us  is  its  strange  contradictions.  The 
credulous  and  the  critical,  the  superstitious  and 
the  rational,  fanaticism  and  sound  judgment,  were 
well-nigh  inextricably  commingled.  But  this  is 
only  another  way  of  saying  that  he  was  a  thor- 
oughly .eighteenth-century  human.  There  were 
others  more  or  less  like  him  even  among  the  in- 
tellectual geniuses  of  the  age. 

Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  is  an  example.  But  Wes- 
ley outdid  Johnson.  His  mind  early  suffered  an 
abnormal  twist  in  the  direction  of  belief  without 
adequate  evidence,  especially  in  matters  that  had 
to  do  with  the  mysterious  and  the  unseen.  While 
he  was  absent  at  school,  there  were  strange  noises 
under  the  paternal  roof  at  the  Epworth  rectory. 
They  continued  for  the  space  of  two  months,  and 
consisted  of  rappings,  the  moving  of  feet  and  of 
furniture  and  the  lifting  of  latches.  It  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  Wesley's  mother  and  sisters  heard 
them  first  and  his  hard-headed  father  last  of  all. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION        139 

Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge's  comment  upon  the  in- 
cident is  also  illuminating  :  "  All  these  stories  — 
and  I  could  produce  fifty  at  least  equally  as  well 
authenticated,  and,  as  far  as  the  veracity  of  the 
narrators  and  the  single  fact  of  their  having  seen 
such  and  such  sights  and  sounds  is  concerned, 
above  all  rational  scepticism  —  are  much  like  one 
another,  as  the  symptoms  of  the  same  disease  in 
different  patients.  And  this  indeed  I  take  to  be 
the  true  and  only  solution  —  a  contagious  nervous 
disease,  the  acme  or  intensest  form  of  which  is 
catalepsy." 

Of  course  we  know  now  that  it  may  not  even  be 
a  disease,  but  an  indication  of  overwrought  imagi- 
nation and  nervous  instability,  which  may  or  may 
not  be  pathological.  There  was  much  made  of 
these  mysterious  noises  in  the  family  letters  and 
the  family  records,  and  they  never  lost  their  power 
over  the  mind  of  Wesley.  The  belief  of  the  age 
in  ghosts,  in  witches,  in  mysterious  and  malign 
spirits,  was  confirmed  in  him  from  his  youth.  His 
journal  has  a  generous  collection  of  tales  of  the 
preternatural  which  would  not  bear  a  moment's 
scientific  sifting.  He  implicitly  believed  the  stories 
related  by  his  friends  of  halos  both  bright  and 
gloomy  hovering  over  the  faces  of  the  dead.  He 
would  have  been  the  last  to  class  them,  as  modern 
psychology  does,  with  hallucinations  of  the  sane. 
The  belief  in  witchcraft,  which  was  dying  out  in 
England,  was  still  vital  with  him.  He  held  that 
many  who  were  clearly  overcome  by  his  own 


I4O       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

personality  in  the  pulpit  were  "  possessed  of 
Satan"! 

If  one  were  to  look  only  at  this  side  of  his  nature, 
one  would  think  at  times  that  he  had  an  almost  in- 
finite capacity  for  believing  incredible  things.  He 
carried  the  doctrine  of  special  providence  to  a 
limit  which  has  probably  never  been  surpassed. 
He  opened  his  Bible  at  random, and  the  text  at  the 
top  of  the  page  was  his  guide  in  the  critical  hour. 
One  day  his  head  was  aching  and  his  horse  was 
lame.  "  I  thought  —  cannot  God  heal  either  man 
or  beast  by  any  means  or  without  means  ?  Imme- 
diately my  headache  ceased  and  my  horse's  lame- 
ness in  the  same  instant."  Again  his  carriage  was 
stoned  by  a  mob.  But  he  experienced  no  harm, 
for,  as  he  writes,  with  no  suspicion  of  the  delicious 
humor  of  it,  "  a  very  large  gentlewoman  sat  in  my 
lap  and  screened  me  so  that  nothing  came  near 
me." 

I  do  not  mean  that  there  was  any  arrant  dog- 
matism about  all  this.  He  did  not  ask  others  to 
believe  it.  They  might  disbelieve  it  entirely  with- 
out giving  any  offence  to  him.  He  was  very  toler- 
ant in  this  and  all  other  matters  of  opinion,  and 
this  is  the  reason,  I  take  it,  why  he  did  not  actually 
fan  into  a  mighty  flame  the  latent  superstition  of 
the  primitive  people  to  whom  he  preached.  But 
that  his  own  conviction  in  these  matters,  together 
with  the  excitement  of  the  revival,  did  exert  to  a 
considerable  extent  a  reactionary  influence,  I  think 
there  can  be  little  doubt.  England  and  Europe  in 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION        14! 

his  day  were  coming  over  to  the  scientific  view  of 
"  demoniacal  possession  "  and  phenomena  of  that 
character.  Wesley  himself  observes  the  change 
and  solemnly  protests  against  it  as  an  evidence  of 
the  religious  scepticism  of  the  time.  "  The  Eng- 
lish in  general,  and  indeed  most  of  the  men  of 
learning  in  Europe,  have  given  up  all  account  of 
witches  and  apparitions  as  mere  old  wives'  fables. 
I  am  sorry  for  it.  ...  With  my  last  breath  will 
I  bear  testimony  against  giving  up  to  infidels  one 
great  proof  of  the  invisible  world.  The  giving  up 
of  witchcraft  is  the  giving  up  of  the  Bible."  It  is 
likely  that  the  saner  scientific  judgment  found 
little  favor  with  the  many  thousands  who  fell  un- 
der the  spell  of  such  vehement  assertion  as  this. 
And  it  would  indeed  be  strange  if  Wesley's  influ- 
ence did  not  make  it  more  difficult  at  a  later  day  to 
storm  the  citadel  of  primitive  superstition  in  the 
English  population.  Substantial  evidence  for  this 
view  is  found  also  in  the  outbreak  of  reflex  phe- 
nomena, which  occurred  first  under  Wesley  and 
were  encouraged  by  him  in  the  face  of  wiser  coun- 
sel. The  superstitious  explanation  of  these  events 
which  he  so  clearly  sanctioned  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  ago  has  not  yet  entirely  faded  from  the 
thinking  of  his  followers. 

After  what  has  just  been  said,  it  may  seem  a 
paradox  to  affirm,  as  I  do,  that  one  great  secret  of 
Wesley's  power  was  his  possession  to  a  remark- 
able degree  of  the  superb  practical  sense  of  the 
Saxon  race.  Jonathan  Edwards  had  a  saving  mcas- 


142       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

ure  of  it,  but  John  Wesley  had  it  in  abundance.  In 
all  matters  which  were  neutral,  in  which  he  was  not 
directly  and  personally  interested,  which  did  not  im- 
mediately concern  his  own  friends  and  his  own  cause, 
he  was  capable  of  the  most  discriminating  scepti- 
cism. About  1740  a  sect  of  religious  "Jumpers" 
arose  in  Wales.  Wesley  visited  them  and  de- 
scribed their  extravagances  dispassionately.  Their 
vociferous  singing  of  hymns  over  and  over  again, 
their  posturing  and  their  leaping,  seemed  to  him 
only  a  species  of  religious  drunkenness  or  mad- 
ness. "  They  are  honest,"  said  he,  "  but  under- 
stand little  of  their  own  natures."  Early  in  the 
eighteenth  century  the  sect  of  French  Prophets 
appeared  in  England.  They  had  been  driven  out 
of  France  and  had  already  spread  the  well-known 
phenomena  of  nervous  instability  through  Germany 
and  Holland.  They  were  subject  to  trance,  vision 
and  violent  bodily  agitation.  Wesley  sounded  a 
sturdy  note  of  warning  against  them.  Their  in- 
ward feelings,  their  revelations,  their  tears,  their 
physical  contortions,  were  in  themselves  absolutely 
untrustworthy.  They  had  no  validity  until  put  to 
an  external  practical  test.  He  prepared  a  trench- 
ant criticism  of  Swedenborg.  He  began  the  inves- 
tigation "  with  huge  prejudice  in  his  favor."  His 
conclusion  is  that  Swedenborg  "  is  one  of  the  most 
ingenious,  lively,  entertaining  madmen  that  ever 
set  pen  on  paper,"  that  he  was  subject  to  delusion, 
that  his  religious  visions  are  many  of  them  "  silly 
and  childish  to  the  last  degree  .  .  .  palpably  ab- 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       145 

surd,  contrary  to  all  sound  reason."  He  had  an 
instinct  for  historical  criticism.  The  ancient  tales 
of  the  Amazons  and  the  Argonauts  fared  ill  at  his 
hands.  "  Many  allegories  and  prophetic  fables," 
he  says,  "  have  been  mistaken  for  real  histories."  l 
In  spite  of  his  superstition  of  opening  the  Bible 
in  a  fortuitous  manner  to  ascertain  the  will  of  God, 
he  was  much  more  akin  to  Edwards  in  his  distrust 
of  impulses,  impressions  and  inward  feelings  than 
to  a  man  like  Whitefield,  for  example.  At  least 
this  was  thoroughly  true  of  his  later  years.  It  is 
somewhat  disquieting  to  observe  that  when  he  re- 
published  in  London  in  1745  Edwards'  work  on 
the  Northampton  revival,  he  carefully  abridged  it 
by  excluding  the  strictures  on  "  impulses  and  im- 
pressions," and  including  the  wonderful  record  of 
"  bodily  effects  "  to  which  Edwards  at  that  time 
gave  something  approaching  unqualified  approval. 
But  we  may  be  doing  violence  to  Wesley's  motive. 
A  quarter  of  a  century  later  he  was  charged  with 
believing  that  the  mind  has  an  inward  sense  that 
enables  it  to  discern  the  source  of  psychical  mani- 
festations, whether  they  be  of  God  or  not,  and  even 
from  which  person  of  the  Trinity  they  come. 
Wesley  replied  that  if  any  of  his  disciples  believed 
it,  they  had  never  learned  it  of  him,  that  for  forty 
years  his  doctrine  of  inward  feelings  had  been  that 
no  man  could  discern  whether  they  were  divine  or 
not  except  by  external  test,  and  that  in  this  matter 

1  Cf.  article  "  Criticisms  of  John  Wesley,"  Nnv  York  Christian 
Advocate,  ].  M.  Buckley,  July  9,  1903. 


144      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

one  could  be  inwardly  conscious  of  nothing  save 
that  the  Scriptural  fruits  of  the  Spirit  are  being 
exemplified  in  his  life.  And  he  closed  the  letter 
of  defence  1  with  an  expression  of  disgust  at  the 
excesses  into  which  the  heated  imagination  of 
some  of  his  followers  had  led  them,  and  tells  of  the 
discipline  that  had  been  visited  upon  them  in  ex- 
pulsion from  the  ranks  of  his  society. 

But  the  conservative  practical  sense  of  the  man 
was  still  more  obvious  in  administration.  It  is  at 
this  point  that  he  has  won  encomium  from  every 
great  student  of  the  period.  He  was  a  true  Eng- 
lishman in  his  dislike  for  change,  as  well  as  in  the 
promptness  with  which  he  accepted  the  new  when 
the  old  way  was  no  longer  useful.  He  fought  every 
step  of  departure  from  ecclesiastical  precedent, 
from  field  preaching  to  separation  from  the  church 
of  England,  and  yielded  every  step  except  the  last, 
which  was  consummated  after  his  death.  Macaulay, 
Buckle,  Lecky,  and  Leslie  Stephen  have  vied  with 
one  another  in  bearing  tribute  to  this  genius  for 
cautious  judgment  and  for  practical  action. 

In  the  quality  of  pure  intellect,  by  which  is 
usually  meant,  I  suppose,  the  power  of  abstract 
thinking,  he  was  manifestly  inferior  to  Edwards. 
Perhaps  it  would  be  fairer  to  say  that  he  was  of 
another  type  than  Edwards,  for  Wesley  had  fine 
intellectual  endowment.  But  he  was  not  a  specu- 
lative genius  —  only  a  strong,  plain,  deductive  logi- 

1  To  Dr.  Rutherforth.  op.  cit,,  1768 ;  quoted  in  New  York 
Christian  Advocate^  July  9,  1903. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       145 

cian,  with  what  has  impressed  Lecky  and  others  as 
an  "  exaggerated  passion  for  reasoning."  He  had 
the  best  university  training  of  his  time,  and  exhib- 
ited refinement  of  scholarly  taste  and  breadth  of 
culture.  Contrary  to  a  quite  generally  received 
opinion,  he  laid  great  emphasis  upon  reason 
throughout  his  career.  If  there  was  one  thing 
above  another  that  he  could  not  endure  among 
his  followers,  it  was  unintelligent  faith.  A  dis- 
tinguished antagonist  once  asserted  that  it  was 
a  fundamental  principle  of  his  societies  that  all 
who  went  into  them  should  renounce  their  reason. 
"  Sir,"  said  Wesley,  "  are  you  awake  ?  Unless 
you  are  talking  in  your  sleep,  how  can  you  utter 
so  gross  an  untruth  ?  It  is  a  fundamental  principle 
with  us  that  to  renounce  reason  is  to  renounce 
religion,  that  reason  and  religion  go  hand  in  hand, 
and  that  all  irrational  religion  is  false  religion." 
And  this  was  not  the  sudden  burst  of  impassioned 
debate.  He  exhorted  his  disciples  frequently  in 
his  journal,  in  his  appeals,  in  his  sermons,  to  use 
all  the  reason  they  had  if  they  really  sought  true 
religion.1 

He  was  very  firm,  even  domineering,  in  the  per- 
sonal government  of  his  societies,  and  strong  in 
conviction  with  respect  to  what  he  regarded  as  the 
essentials  of  faith  in  its  simplicity.  But  he  was 
exceedingly  broad  in  his  charity  for  the  beliefs  of 
other  people  in  all  matters  which  did  not  fall 
within  the  range  of  these  essentials.  And  in  this 

1  See,  for  example,  his  "Calm  Appeal,"  1743. 
J, 


146      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

respect  there  was,  I  think,  a  perceptible  mellowing 
to  the  end  of  his  long  life.  He  published  for  his 
disciples  the  biography  of  a  very  excellent  Unita- 
rian, Thomas  Firmin.  "  The  arch-heretics  of  his- 
tory, —  Montanus  .  .  .  Pelagius  .  .  .  Servetus  .  .  . 
—  he  declared  that  in  his  opinion  they  were  all 
holy  men,  who  at  the  last,  with  all  the  good  men 
of  the  heathen  world,  —  Socrates  and  Plato  and 
Trajan  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  —  would  come  from 
the  east  and  the  west  and  sit  down  in  the  king- 
dom of  heaven."  1 

Proof  of  the  essential  liberalism  of  the  man  can 
be  produced  in  plenty,  but  I  know  no  passage  in 
his  collected  writings  which  more  perfectly  sets  it 
forth  than  the  following  paragraph  from  a  letter  of 
advice  to  his  people  in  1745  :  — 

"  Lay  so  much  stress  on  opinions  that  all  your  own,  if  it  be 
possible,  may  agree  with  truth  and  reason  ;  but  have  a  care  of 
anger,  dislike  or  contempt  towards  those  whose  opinions  differ 
from  yours.  You  are  daily  accused  of  this  (and  indeed  what 
is  it  whereof  you  are  not  accused  ? )  ;  but  beware  of  giving  any 
ground  for  such  accusation.  Condemn  no  man  for  not  think- 
ing as  you  think.  Let  every  one  enjoy  the  full  and  free  liberty 
of  thinking  for  himself.  Let  every  man  use  his  own  judgment, 
since  every  man  must  give  an  account  of  himself  to  God. 
Abhor  every  approach,  in  any  kind  or  degree,  to  the  spirit  of 
persecution.  If  you  cannot  reason  or  persuade  a  man  into  the 
truth,  never  attempt  to  force  him  into  it.  If  love  will  not  com- 
pel him  to  come  in,  leave  him  to  God,  the  Judge  of  all."2 

1  Professor  C.  T.  Winchester,  in  a  brilliant  bicentennial  mono- 
graph, "  John  Wesley  the  Man." 
8  Wesley,  "  Works,"  Vol.  V,  p.  253. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       147 

There  is  no  brilliant  speculative  treatise  associated 
with  his  name  as  there  is  with  that  of  Edwards. 
He  lived  all  his  days  in  a  world  of  action,  and 
not  in  the  atmosphere  of  philosophy.  And  he 
could  not  have  rivalled  his  New  England  contem- 
porary in  that  domain.  He  was  lacking  in  the 
lofty  poetic  imagination  which  was  at  once  the 
glory  and  the  peril  of  Edwards.  His  style,  "  plain 
and  nervous,"  as  he  calls  it,  was  very  useful  for 
the  practical  purpose  of  instructing  the  thousands 
of  his  converts,  but  it  is  wanting  in  richness  and 
picturesqueness  just  because  its  author  was  want- 
ing in  imagination.  As  a  consequence,  his  ser- 
mons, letters  and  appeals  are  not  widely  read  by 
posterity.  It  is  the  opinion  of  a  very  competent 
critic,1  however,  that  his  journal  is  one  of  the  three 
or  four  most  interesting  books  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  that,  except  for  its  lack  of  humor, 
it  would  be  a  work  which  no  intelligent  man  could 
leave  unread.  As  it  is,  the  surpassing  record  of 
human  action  which  it  contains  lends  to  it  its  chief 
charm. 

Still  contrary  to  a  widely  prevalent  popular  appre- 
hension, Wesley's  personality  could  in  no  proper 
sense  be  characterized  as  emotional.  Whitefield 
was  an  emotionalist,  —  so  were  others  who  were 
connected  with  the  movement,  —  but  not  Wesley. 
I  do  not  mean  that  his  nature  was  so  frigid  as  some 
of  his  biographers  have  found  it.  Love  of  hu- 
manity was  strong  within  him.  There  was  also  a 

1  Professor  C.  T.  Winchester,  op.  cit. 


148       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

vein  of  sentiment,  even  of  sentimentality,  in  the 
man  somewhere,  as  appears  from  his  unfortunate 
matrimonial  hazard,  and  his  clear  preference  for 
the  sentimental  and  romantic  in  literature.1  But 
leaving  out  of  account  his  love  affairs,  it  would  be 
difficult  to  name  a  man  who  all  his  life  long  ex- 
hibited such  mastery  of  passion  and  emotion.  He 
conquered  many  a  mob  by  his  absolute  self-posses- 
sion. There  was  the  look  in  his  calm  gray  eye  of 
a  man  who  never  knew  fear.  There  was  very  little 
that  was  sensational  in  his  sermons.  He  had  no 
love  for  "the  amorous  style  of  praying  and  the 
luscious  style  of  preaching."  For  the  most  part 
he  urged  the  claims  of  a  new  life,  a  new  experience, 
a  new  character,  in  a  quiet,  unenthusiastic,  straight- 
forward, but  terribly  impressive  manner.  Although 
Moravian  mysticism  influenced  him  at  the  outset 
of  his  career,  Wesley  was  no  mystic.  There  was 
too  much  of  the  stolid  Saxon  about  him.  He  was 
not  given  to  tears.  He  never  would  have  wept 
throughout  a  sermon  of  Whitefield's  as  Jonathan 
Edwards  did.  I  do  not  know  how  the  contrary 
impression  of  this  man  has  so  gotten  abroad.  It 
may  be  due  partly  to  the  likeness  of  Wesley  in 
his  old  age,  which  has  usually  been  printed  to 
image  forth  his  person  to  posterity.  It  is  a  por- 
trait which  combines  a  look  of  rare  saintliness  with 
feeble  physical  vitality,  and  it  has  not  appealed  as 
forcibly  as  perhaps  it  should  have  to  the  unregen- 
erate  popular  mind.  But  the  Didsbury  College 

1  Professor  C.  T.  Winchester,  op.  cit. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       I4Q 

portrait  of  Wesley  while  he  was  still  young  re- 
veals a  face  similar  to  Cromwell's  in  firmness  and 
strength,  but  more  kindly.  The  misapprehension 
about  the  man  may  also  be  due  to  the  fact  that 
after  all  he  really  gave  the  impulse  to  \vhat  was 
essentially  a  tremendous  outburst  of  emotion.  He 
tapped  the  sources  of  it  in  the  population,  and  so 
mighty  was  the  flow  that  for  a  century  and  a  half 
his  followers  on  two  continents  have  been  carried 
onward  by  the  rush  of  it.  They  are  only  now  get- 
ting back  that  rational  balance  that  was  in  their 
founder,  and  many  of  them  do  not  yet  understand 
that  their  Magna  Charta  of  intellectual  liberty  and 
temperamental  sanity  is  to  be  found  in  the  prin- 
ciples and  the  practice  which  governed  Wesley's 
own  mental  and  spiritual  life. 

A  question  arises  at  this  point  which  it  is  not  easy 
to  answer.  How  is  it  that  this  sort  of  a  personality 
could  be  the  exciting  cause  of  such  a  profusion  of 
reflex  phenomena  as  are  recorded  and  even  described 
in  detail  in  the  journal  ?  Whitefield  addressed 
great  audiences  of  the  common  people  with  all  the 
persuasiveness  and  magnetic  eloquence  which  he 
could  command,  but  reflex  phenomena  never  ap- 
peared under  him  until  they  had  first  appeared  under 
Wesley  and  spread  by  imitation  and  contagion.  But 
they  were  very  common  under  Wesley  during  the 
early  years  of  his  itinerant  ministry.  Before  we  at- 
tempt an  explanation  of  this  somewhat  mysterious 
circumstance,  let  us  turn  the  pages  of  the  journal 
and  scrutinize  the  particulars  of  the  phenomena. 


I5O      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

April  17,  1739.  At  Baldwin  Street  after  the 
preaching  Wesley  called  upon  God  to  confirm  His 
word.  A  woman  "  that  stood  by  (to  our  no  small 
surprise)  cried  out  aloud  with  the  utmost  vehe- 
mence even  as  in  the  agonies  of  death."  Soon 
after,  at  the  same  meeting,  "two  other  persons, 
well  known  in  the  place  as  laboring  to  live  in  all 
good  conscience  toward  all  men,  were  seized  with 
strong  pain  and  were  constrained  to  roar  for  the 
disquietness  of  their  heart." 

April  21.  "At  Weaver's  hall  a  young  man  was 
suddenly  seized  with  a  violent  trembling  all  over, 
and  in  a  few  minutes,  the  sorrows  of  his  heart 
being  enlarged,  sunk  down  to  the  ground." 

April  25.  At  Newgate,  at  the  close  of  his  ser- 
mon, he  called  upon  God  to  bear  witness  to  His 
word.  "  Immediately  one  and  another  and  another 
sunk  to  the  earth.  They  dropped  on  every  side 
as  thunder-struck."  These  appear  from  the  con- 
text to  have  been  women. 

April  26.  "All  Newgate  rang  with  the  cries  of 
those  whom  the  word  of  God  cut  to  the  heart." 

April  29.  Still  at  Newgate,  a  woman  was  so 
affected  that  great  drops  of  sweat  ran  down  her 
face,  and  all  her  bones  shook. 

May  i.  "At  Baldwin  Street  my  voice  could 
scarce  be  heard  amidst  the  groanings  of  some  and 
the  cries  of  others.  .  .  ."  "  A  Quaker  who  stood 
by  ...  not  a  little  displeased  .  .  .  was  biting  his 
lips  and  knitting  his  brows,  when  he  dropped  down 
thunder-struck.  The  agony  he  was  in  was  even 
terrible  to  behold." 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION        151 

May  2.  "John  Haydon,  a  weaver,  who  was  at 
Baldwin  Street  the  night  before  ...  a  man  of 
regular  life  and  conversation,  one  that  constantly 
attended  the  public  prayers  and  sacrament,  being 
informed  that  people  fell  into  strange  fits  at  the 
societies,  came  to  see  and  judge  for  himself.  .  .  . 
We  were  going  home,  when  one  met  us  in  the 
street  and  informed  us  that  John  Haydon  was 
fallen  raving  mad.  It  seems  he  had  sat  down  to 
dinner,  but  had  a  mind  first  to  end  a  sermon  he 
had  borrowed  on  '  Salvation  by  Faith.'  In  read- 
ing the  last  page,  he  changed  color,  fell  off  his 
chair  and  began  screaming  terribly  and  beating 
himself  against  the  ground.  ...  I  came  in  ... 
the  room  being  full  of  people.  .  .  .  Two  or  three 
men  were  holding  him  as  well  as  they  could.  .  .  . 
He  immediately  fixed  his  eyes  upon  me,  and  .  .  . 
cried,  '  Ay,  this  is  he  whom  I  said  was  a  deceiver 
of  the  people.  But  God  has  overtaken  me  ! '  He 
then  roared  out  — '  Oh,  thou  devil !  Thou  cursed 
devil !  .  .  .  Thou  canst  not  stay.  Christ  will 
cast  thee  out.  .  .  .'  He  then  beat  himself  against 
the  ground  again,  his  breast  heaving  at  the  same 
time  as  in  the  pangs  of  death  and  great  drops  of 
sweat  trickling'  down  his  face.  We  all  betook  our- 
selves to  prayer.  His  pangs  ceased.  .  .  .  His 
voice  was  lost  and  his  body  as  weak  as  that  of  an 
infant.  But  his  soul  was  in  peace." 

May  19.  "At  Weaver's  hall  a  woman  first  and 
then  a  boy  about  fourteen  years  of  age  was  over- 
whelmed with  sin  and  sorrow  and  fear." 


152       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

The  exceeding  abundance  of  the  phenomena  in 
the  vicinity  of  Bristol  by  this  time  aroused  the 
spirit  of  inquiry  and  opposition.  Wesley  was 
evidently  not  at  once  convinced  that  they  were 
supernatural,  for  his  brother  Samuel  says  that 
John  doubted  at  first  and  examined  into  the 
ecstasies,  and  he  endeavored  to  warn  the  great 
preacher  against  fanaticism,  in  the  following  let- 
ter :  "  I  have  my  own  reason  as  well  as  your 
authority  against  the  exceeding  clearness  of 
divine  interposition  here.  Your  followers  fall 
into  agonies  —  I  confess  it.  They  are  freed 
from  them  after  you  have  prayed  over  them. 
Granted.  They  say  it  is  God's  doing.  I  own  they 
say  so.  Dear  brother,  where  is  your  ocular  dem- 
onstration ?  Where  indeed  is  the  rational  proof  ? 
Their  living  well  afterwards  may  be  a  probable 
and  sufficient  argument  that  they  believe  this  — 
but  it  goes  no  farther."  1 

Soon  Wesley  gave  the  clearest  encouragement 
to  the  manifestations.  In  a  reply  to  a  persistent 
objector,2  he  affirms  that  God  works  these  effects 
in  this  very  manner  of  swoons  and  outcries.  And 
as  for  visions,  "  I  know  several  persons,"  he  says, 
"in  whom  this  great  change  was  wrought  in  a  dream, 
or  during  strong  representation  to  the  eye  of  their 
mind,  of  Christ  either  on  the  cross  or  in  glory."  3 

1  Quoted  in  Southey's  "  Life  of  Wesley,"  Vol.  I,  p.  282. 

2  "Journal,"  Vol.  I,  p.  134. 

8  Italics  here,  as  elsewhere  in  this  book  in  quotations  from  the 
journals  of  religious  leaders,  are  my  own. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       153 

And  his  comment  at  the  same  time  makes  it 
very  clear  that  he  regards  God  as  suffering  these 
miraculous  effects  at  a  critical  time  in  order  that 
the  inward  change  may  be  made  manifest  to  the 
dull  eye  and  ear  of  a  froward  generation.  The 
contagion  needed  no  further  encouragement.  The 
last  restraint  was  gone  when  this  calm  master  of 
assemblies  gave  full  rein  to  these  extravagances, 
sympathetically  regarding  them  as  throes  of  the 
new  birth.  The  credulous  element  in  Wesley's 
nature  rose  into  full  sovereignty  for  the  hour. 

May  21.  "To-day  our  Lord  answered  for  Him- 
self "  those  opposers  who  believed  that  the  fainting 
was  simulated  or  caused  by  the  closeness  of  the  air 
in  the  crowded  room.  God  made  bare  His  arm 
before  two  thousand  witnesses  in  the  open  air. 
"  One  and  another  and  another  were  struck  to  the 
earth,  exceedingly  trembling  at  the  presence  of 
His  power."  There  were  loud  and  bitter  cries  of 
raving  and  suffering.  The  excitement  was  so 
intense,  the  suggestibility  of  his  hearers  so  great, 
that  he  would  scarcely  begin  speaking  before  they 
would  fall  on  every  side.  In  the  evening  he  was 
interrupted  at  the  beginning  of  his  sermon  by  one 
who  was  "pricked  at  the  heart,"  and  strongly 
groaned  for  pardon  and  peace.  "  Another  person 
dropped  down,  close  to  one  who  was  a  strong 
asserter  of  the  contrary  doctrine.  While  he  stood 
astonished  at  the  sight,  a  little  boy  near  him  was 
seized  in  the  same  manner.  A  young  man  who 
stood  up  behind,  fixed  his  eyes  on  him  and  sunk 


154      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

down  himself  as  one  dead,  but  soon  began  to  roar 
out  and  beat  himself  against  the  ground  so  that 
six  men  could  scarcely  hold  him.  Meanwhile 
many  others  began  to  cry  out  ...  in  so  much 
that  all  the  house,  and  indeed  all  the  street  for 
some  space  was  in  an  uproar." 

By  the  middle  of  the  following  month  he  was  in 
the  vicinity  of  London. 

June  15.  "While  I  was  earnestly  inviting  all 
sinners  to  enter  into  the  holiest,  many  of  those 
who  heard  began  to  call  upon  God  with  strange 
cries  and  tears.  Some  sank  down  and  there 
remained  no  strength  in  them,  and  others  exceed- 
ingly trembled  and  quaked.  Some  were  torn  with 
a  kind  of  convulsive  motion  in  every  part  of  their 
body,  and  they  were  so  violent  that  often  four  or 
five  persons  could  not  hold  one  of  them."  Wesley 
encouraged  these  poor  creatures  to  believe  that 
they  were  torn  of  Satan,  asserting  that  he  had 
seen  many  hysterical  and  epileptic  people,  but  they 
were  not  as  these.  "  One  woman  was  offended 
greatly,  being  sure  that  they  might  help  it  if  they 
would,  and  was  got  three  or  four  yards  when  she 
also  dropped  down  in  as  violent  an  agony  as  the 
rest." 

In  a  short  time  he  was  back  again  at  Bristol  and 
Kingswood,  in  an  atmosphere  congenial  to  strange 
mental  and  nervous  manifestations.  He  found 
that  in  the  eight  days'  absence  Satan  had  gained 
great  advantage.  Disputes  had  crept  into  the 
little  society,  so  that  the  love  of  many  had  waxed 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       155 

cold.  The  French  Prophets  had  been  busy  sowing 
the  seeds  of  dissension.  The  rational  in  Wesley 
rises  toward  the  surface  again  in  the  presence  of 
these  interlopers.  He  warns  the  people  that  dreams, 
visions,  revelations,  tears,  involuntary  effects,  are 
of  a  doubtful,  disputable  nature.  They  may  be 
from  God  and  they  may  not.  One  gains  a  faint 
impression,  however,  from  the  journal  that  if  the 
French  Prophets  cause  them,  they  are  not  to  be 
relied  upon.  If  they  occur  under  his  own  preach- 
ing, they  are  more  likely  to  be  trustworthy.  There 
is  little  evidence  just  at  this  time  of  any  attempt  to 
sift  the  tares  from  the  wheat.  They  are  allowed 
to  grow  riotously  together,  pending  the  harvest. 

June  22.  "While  I  was  speaking,  one  before  me 
dropped  down  as  dead  and  presently  a  second  and 
a  third.  Five  others  sank  down  in  half  an  hour, 
most  of  whom  were  in  violent  agonies." 

June  24.  "  In  the  evening  a  girl  and  five  other 
persons,  .  .  .  with  sighs  and  groans,  called  upon 
God  for  deliverance." 

June  25.  "  At  ten  in  the  morning,  J e  C r, 

as  she  was  sitting  at  her  work,  was  suddenly  seized 
with  grievous  terrors  of  mind  attended  with  strong 
tremblings." 

June  26.  "  Three  persons  terribly  felt  the  wrath 
of  God  abiding  on  them  at  the  society  this  even- 
ing." 

July  i.  "A  young  woman  sank  down  at  Rose 
Green  in  a  violent  agony  of  both  body  and  mind, 
as  did  five  or  six  persons  in  the  evening  at  the  new 


156      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

room,  at  whose  cries  many  were  greatly  offended. 
The  same  offence  was  given  in  the  morning  by  one 
at  Weaver's  hall,  and  by  eight  or  nine  others  at 
Gloucester-lane  in  the  evening.  The  first  that  was 

deeply  touched  was  L W ,  whose  mother 

had  been  not  a  little  displeased  a  day  or  two  before 
when  she  was  told  how  her  daughter  exposed  her- 
self before  all  the  congregation.  The  mother  her- 
self was  the  next  who  dropped  down,  and  lost 
her  senses  in  a  moment." 

Up  to  this  time  Whitefield's  ministry  had  never 
been  attended  by  these  manifestations,  and  he 
wrote  to  Wesley  expressing  his  repugnance  at 
such  occurrences  and  admonishing  him  against  lend- 
ing them  such  powerful  encouragement.1  Twelve 
days  later  Whitefield  passed  through  Bristol,  and 
Wesley's  time  of  triumph  came.  To  his  amaze- 
ment Whitefield  found  that  the  effects  were  now 
produced  under  his  own  preaching.  He  had  no 
sooner  begun  to  invite  sinners  to  repent  than 
"  four  persons  sunk  down  close  to  him  almost  in 
the  same  moment.  One  of  them  lay  without  either 
sense  or  motion.  The  second  trembled  exceed- 
ingly. The  third  had  strong  convulsions  all  over 
his  body,  but  made  no  noise  unless  by  groans.  The 
fourth,  equally  convulsed,  called  upon  God  with 
strong  cries  and  tears."  And  Wesley  adds,  not,  it 
seems,  without  a  touch  of  haughty  asperity  and 
sense  of  conquest  over  a  weaker  brother,  "from 
this  time,  I  trust,  we  shall  all  suffer  God  to  carry 

1  Methodist  Magazine,  1849,  p.  165. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       157 

on  His  own  work  in  the  way  that  pleaseth  Him."  l 
It  is  suggestive  of  the  type  of  Whitefield's  mind 
that  he  was  convinced  not  only  by  the  exemplari- 
ness  of  the  conversation  of  the  converts  in  common 
life,  which  was  well  enough,  but  also  by  their  loud 
and  repeated  "Amens"  —both  of  which,  as  he 
says  in  his  own  journal,  show  that  they  had  not 
received  the  grace  of  God  in  vain. 

Still  at  Bristol :  - 

July  30.  "  Two  more  were  in  strong  pain,  both 
their  souls  and  bodies  being  well-nigh  torn  asunder." 
At  this  point  a  woman  opposer  "  was  struck  through 
as  with  a  sword,  and  fell  trembling  to  the  ground. 
She  then  cried  aloud,  though  inarticulately,  her 
words  being  swallowed  up.  In  this  pain  she  con- 
tinued for  twelve  or  fourteen  hours  and  then  her 
soul  was  set  at  liberty.  But  her  master  (for  she 
was  a  servant  till  that  time  at  a  gentleman's  in 
town)  forbid  her  returning  to  him,  saying  he  would 
have  none  in  his  house  who  had  received  the 
Holy  Ghost." 

August  n.  "In  the  evening  two  were  seized 
with  strong  pangs  as  were  four  the  next  evening, 
and  the  same  number  at  Gloucester-lane  on  Mon- 
day—  one  of  whom  was  greatly  comforted." 

Charles  Wesley  now  took  his  brother's  place  at 
Bristol,  and  John  went  to  London.  Charles  did 
not  agree  with  his  brother's  interpretation  of  the 
"  signs  and  wonders,"  and  discouraged  them,  and 
they  seldom  occurred  under  his  impassioned 

141  Journal,"  Vol.  I,  p.  144. 


158       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

preaching  even  when  the  tendency  to  morbid  imi- 
tation was  at  its  height.  But  he  could  not  entirely 
escape  them  at  Bristol.  On  one  occasion  a  woman 
screamed  for  mercy  so  as  to  drown  his  voice,  and 
on  another,  "  he  heard  on  all  sides  the  sighing  of 
them  that  were  in  captivity."  In  the  meantime 
his  brother  John  on  Kennington  Common  and  in 
Moorfields  was  preaching  to  great  multitudes  of 
the  poor  of  London,  with  comparatively  few 
demonstrations  of  an  uncanny  nature.  But  when 
he  got  back  to  Bristol  in  October,  these  strange 
responses  to  the  stimulation  of  his  personality 
broke  out  afresh. 

October  n.  "In  the  evening  our  Lord  rose  on 
many  who  were  wounded  .  .  .  one  of  these  showed 
the  agony  of  her  soul  by  crying  aloud  to  God  for 
help  .  .  .  she  continued  in  great  torment  all  night, 
but  while  we  were  praying  for  her  in  the  morning, 
God  delivered  her  out  of  her  distress." 

October  12.  "We  had  fresh  occasion  to  observe 
the  darkness  which  was  fallen  on  many  who  lately 
rejoiced  in  God."  The  presence  of  Wesley,  how- 
ever, wrought  its  effect,  and  a  "  cloud  of  witnesses  " 
testified  at  the  morning  meeting  to  a  sudden  return 
to  faith. 

The  mental  and  nervous  strain  of  the  revival 
excitement  soon  became  so  intense  that  some  indi- 
viduals were  on  the  verge  of  insanity.  Wesley 
was  under  concern  for  one  or  two  who  were  "  tor- 
mented in  an  unaccountable  manner  and  seemed 
indeed  to  be  lunatic."  But  he  received  an  answer 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       1 59 

from  the  word  of  God  that  all  was  well.  "  Soon 
after  I  was  sent  for  to  one  of  those  who  was  so 
strangely  torn  by  the  devil.  .  .  .  We  prayed  God 
to  bruise  Satan  under  her  feet.  Immediately  we 
had  the  petition  we  asked  of  Him.  She  cried  out 
vehemently,  '  He  is  gone,  he  is  gone.'  " 

October  23.  "  I  was  exceedingly  pressed  to  go  to 
a  young  woman  in  Kingswood.  I  went.  She  was 
nineteen  or  twenty  years  old,  but  it  seems  could  not 
write  or  read.  I  found  her  on  the  bed,  two  or 
three  persons  holding  her.  It  was  a  terrible  sight. 
Anguish,  horror  and  despair,  above  all  description, 
appeared  in  her  pale  face.  The  thousand  distor- 
tions of  her  whole  body  showed  how  the  dogs  of 
hell  were  gnawing  her  heart.  The  shrieks  inter- 
mixed were  scarce  to  be  endured.  But  her  stony 
eyes  could  not  weep.  She  screamed  out,  as  soon 
as  words  could  find  their  way,  '  I  am  damned, 
damned,  lost  forever.  Six  days  ago  you  might 
have  helped  me.  But  it  is  passed.  I  am  the  devil's 
now.  I  have  given  myself  to  him.  His  I  am. 
Him  I  must  serve.  With  him  I  must  go  to  hell. 
...  I  must,  I  will,  I  will  be  damned.'  She  then 
prayed  to  the  devil.  We  began,  '  Arm  of  the 
Lord,  awake,  awake  ! '  She  immediately  sunk 
down  as  asleep,  but  as  soon  as  we  left  off,  broke 
out  again,  with  inexpressible  vehemence :  '  Stony 
hearts,  break !  I  am  a  warning  to  you.  I  am 
damned  that  you  may  be  saved.'  She  then  fixed 
her  eyes  on  the  corner  of  the  ceiling,  and  said  : 
'  There  he  is,  ay  there  he  is,  come,  good  devil, 


I6O      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

come.  Take  me  away.  You  said  you  would  dash 
my  brains  out.  Come,  do  it  quickly.  I  am  yours. 
.  .  .'  We  interrupted  her  by  calling  again  upon  God, 
on  which  she  sunk  down  as  before  —  and  another 
young  woman  began  to  roar  out  as  loud  as  she  had 
done.  .  .  .  We  continued  in  prayer  until  past 
eleven,  when  God  in  a  moment  spoke  peace  into 
the  soul,  and  they  both  joined  in  singing  praise  to 
Him  who  had  stilled  the  enemy  and  the  avenger." 
October  25.  "I  was  sent  for  to  one  in  Bristol 
who  was  taken  ill  the  evening  before.  She  lay  on 
the  ground  furiously  gnashing  her  teeth  and  after 
a  while  roared  aloud.  It  was  not  easy  for  three  or 
four  persons  to  hold  her,  especially  when  the  name 
of  Jesus  was  named.  We  prayed.  The  violence 
of  her  symptoms  ceased,  though  without  a  com- 
plete deliverance."  Wesley  was  sent  for  again  in 
the  evening,  but  was  loth  to  go  after  the  earlier 
experience  of  the  day.  ••  However,  having  con- 
sulted the  oracle  —  his  Testament  chanced  to 
open  at  the  words,  "I  was  afraid  and  went  and  hid 
thy  talent  in  the  earth  "  —  he  stood  reproved  and 
went.  "  She  began  screaming  before  I  came  into 
the  room,  then  broke  out  into  a  horrid  laughter, 
mixed  with  blasphemy,  grievous  to  hear.  One 
who  from  many  circumstances  apprehended  a  pre- 
ternatural agent  to  be  concerned  in  this,  asking, 
'  How  didst  thou  dare  to  enter  into  a  Christian  ? ' 
was  answered,  '  She  is  not  a  Christian,  she  is  mine." 
Then  another  question,  '  Dost  thou  not  tremble  at 
the  name  of  Jesus  ? '  No  words  followed,  but  she 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       l6l 

shrunk  back  and  trembled  exceedingly.  '  Art  thou 
not  increasing  thy  own  damnation  ? '  It  was  faintly 
answered,  '  Ay  !  Ay  ! '  which  was  followed  by  fresh 
cursing  and  blasphemy  .  .  .  with  spitting,  and  all 
the  expressions  of  strong  aversion."  And  the 
second  day  after,  Wesley  called  and  prayed  with 
her  again  —  "  All  her  pangs  ceased  in  a  moment, 
she  was  filled  with  peace,  and  knew  that  the  son 
of  wickedness  was  departed  from  her." 

October  28.  "  I  was  sent  for  to  Kingswood  again 
to  one  of  those  who  had  been  so  ill  before.  .  .  . 
Just  at  that  time,  the  woman  (then  three  miles  off) 
cried  out,  'Yonder  comes  Wesley,  galloping  as  fast 
as  he  can.'  When  I  was  come  .  .  .  she  burst  out 
into  a  horrid  laughter  and  said :  '  No  power,  no 
power ;  no  faith,  no  faith.  She  is  mine  ;  her  soul 
is  mine.  I  have  her  and  will  not  let  her  go.  .  .  .' 
One  who  was  clearly  convinced  tliis  was  no  natural 
disorder  said,  '  I  think  Satan  is  let  loose.  I  fear 
he  will  stop  not  here,'  and  added,  '  I  command  thee 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  to  tell  if  thou  hast 
commission  to  torment  any  other  soul  ? '  It  was 

immediately  answered,  '  I  have  —  L y  C r 

and  S h  J s.'  "     These  two  persons  lived  at 

some  distance  and  were  then  in  perfect  health, 
according  to  the  journal.  But  the  atmosphere  of 
the  community  was  so  electric  with  suggestibility 
that  they  did  not  long  remain  so.  They  were 
evidently  made  acquainted  with  the  prediction  of 
the  "demon,"  for  Wesley  called  next  evening  at 
Mrs.  J's.  in  Kingswood.  He  found  both  the  un- 


1 62       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

fortunate  girls  there.  Was  he  curious,  or  even 
anxious  to  know  whether  this  supernatural  proph- 
ecy would  be  fulfilled  ?  It  seems  so,  and  that  he 
himself  was  the  centre  of  suggestion.  For  "it 

was  scarce  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  before  L y 

C r   fell   into  a  strange  agony,  and  presently 

after,  S h  J s.     The  violent  convulsions  all 

over  their  bodies  were  such  as  words  cannot  de- 
scribe. .  .  .  We  poured  out  our  souls  before  God, 

till  L y  C r's  agonies  so  increased  that  it 

seemed  that  she  was  in  the  pangs  of  death.  But 
in  a  moment  God  spoke  —  she  knew  His  voice, 
and  both  soul  and  body  were  healed.  ..."  A 

little    later    S h    J s    recovered   from   the 

paroxysm. 

Wesley  appears  here  in  the  rather  unlovely  role 
of  a  pagan  exorcist.  If  he  was  not  the  "  one 
who"  actually  conducted  the  conversation  with  the 
demon,  he  was  clearly  an  assistant  and  in  full  sym- 
pathy with  the  method  employed.  The  medicine- 
man or  priest  always  treated  the  many  cases  of 
possession  which  occurred  in  primitive  communi- 
ties by  just  this  process.  He  would  attempt  to 
drive  the  evil  spirit  out  by  his  own  impressive 
personal  power,  and  by  invoking  friendly  super- 
natural aid.1  Here  are  also  several  instances  of 
the  emergence  of  the  "  double  personality,"  a 
phenomenon  so  common  in  the  Shantung  prov- 
ince of  China  during  similar  paroxysms.  Of 
course  the  intelligent  observer  perceives  in  a 
1  Cf.  Spencer,  "Principles  of  Sociology"  (i-i),  p.  241  f. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION        163 

moment  that  the  key  to  the  explanation  of  these 
things  is  not  in  demon  possession  at  all,  as  Wesley 
clearly  believed.  Some  of  the  cases  of  alleged 
possession  were  no  doubt  purely  pathological.  But 
so  far  as  they  occur  in  normal  health,  as  they  ap- 
pear to  have  done  in  the  west  of  England  under 
Wesley  and  very  frequently  in  Shantung  under  the 
observation  of  Nevius,  they  indicate  a  rudimentary 
stage  of  mental  and  nervous  evolution.  In  a  prim- 
itive and  nervously  unstable  population,  full  of 
mythical  notions  with  respect  to  the  easy  en- 
trance of  evil  spirits  into  the  body,  any  consider- 
able stress  of  excitement,  especially  if  it  be  religious, 
will  bring  these  phenomena  to  the  surface.  They 
have  no  more  causal  connection  with  the  super- 
natural or  with  Christianity  than  they  have  with 
the  phases  of  the  moon.  And  not  only  the 
relief  which  Wesley  obtained  for  his  subjects, 
but  the  state  of  exaltation  which  ensued,  have 
been  duplicated  times  without  number  in  the 
experience  of  pagan  priests  and  savage  exorcists, 
and  by  native  missionary  assistants  in  heathen 
lands.1 

Observing  these  phenomena  closely,  as  well  as 
others  which  occurred  in  the  same  year,  we  shall 
be  impressed  at  once  with  the  grouping  in  time  and 
space.  Although  there  were  sporadic  instances  in 
London  and  elsewhere, — a  considerable  number 
of  them  on  the  whole, — yet  most  of  the  striking 
cases  gather  about  the  neighborhood  of  Bristol 

1  Cf.  Nevius,  "  Demon  Possession,"  p.  13  ;  also  pp.  30-35. 


164      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

and  Kingswood  when  Wesley's  personality  first 
broke  upon  the  population  in  1739.  Tyerman, 
who  carefully  collated  the  phenomena,1  noted  also 
the  grouping  which,  he  says,  adds  to  the  strange- 
ness and  mysteriousness  of  the  facts,  but  he  offers 
no  explanation.  It  is  not  far  to  seek.  Bristol  and 
Kingswood  at  this  time  contained  a  population  the 
most  primitive,  brutal  and  ignorant  in  all  England. 
Wesley  himself  spoke  of  the  colliers  as  "  a  people, 
famous  from  the  beginning  hitherto  for  neither 
fearing  God  nor  regarding  man,  so  ignorant  of  the 
things  of  God  that  they  seem  but  one  remove  from 
the  beasts  that  perish,  and  therefore  utterly  with- 
out desire  of  instruction  as  well  as  without  the 
means  of  it." 2  They  were  outcast,  ignorant, 
neglected,  sunk  in  vice  and  bitterness  and  envyings 
and  strife,  and  were  like  tinder  to  the  revival  flame. 
It  was  in  this  population  that  the  revival  was 
kindled,  and  it  is  exactly  what  we  should  expect 
according  to  the  law  of  origin.  And  from  what 
we  know  of  the  primitive  nature  of  man  unmoulded 
by  experience  and  civilized  environment,  where 
more  certainly  would  the  peculiar  phenomena  be 
likely  to  appear  in  the  England  of  the  eighteenth 
century  than  in  the  neighborhood  of  Bristol  and 
Kingswood  ?  If,  while  he  was  still  seeking  an 
explanation,  Tyerman's  eye  had  lighted  upon  a 
page  of  the  journal  of  1743,  I  am  sure  it  would 
have  been  to  him  very  interesting  reading.  After 

1  Cf.   Tyerman,   "  Life    and  Times    of   John  Wesley,"  Vol.  I, 
p.  255  f.  2  "Journal,"  Vol.  I,  p.  170. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       165 

a  lull  of  four  years  in  the  storm  of  phenomena, 
they  suddenly  appear  again  in  great  abundance 
near  Newcastle  at  a  place  called  Chowden,  which 
Wesley  characterizes  as  "  the  Kingswood  of  the 
north."  As  he  entered  the  village  for  the  first 
time,  twenty  or  thirty  wild  children  ran  round  him, 
staring  in  amazement.  They  were  neither  clothed 
nor  quite  naked.  A  girl  of  fifteen,  for  example, 
had  a  piece  of  ragged,  dirty  blanket  hung  about  her 
and  a  cap  on  her  head  of  the  same  cloth  and  color. 
The  people  received  him  as  if  they  would  have 
swallowed  him  up.  It  was  the  very  abode  of 
savage  ignorance  and  wickedness.  Wesley  under- 
took a  course  of  visiting  to  study  the  cases  of  the 
many  who  had  cried  aloud  every  night  in  the  week 
during  the  preaching.  He  found  that,  without 
exception,  they  were  persons  in  perfect  health  and 
had  not  been  subject  to  fits  of  any  kind  until  they 
were  thus  affected,  and  that  the  manifestations  had 
overcome  them  very  suddenly  under  the  preaching 
or  in  meditation  upon  it  afterwards.  They  at  once 
dropped  down,  lost  all  their  strength  and  were 
seized  with  violent  pain.  Some  said  they  felt  as  if 
a  sword  was  running  through  them,  others  that 
they  were  being  squeezed  down  by  a  great  weight. 
Some  were  choked,  others  in  imagination  torn  to 
pieces.  With  some,  their  minds  were  overwhelmed, 
stunned  and  confounded.  With  others  there  was 
great  fear  of  the  wrath  of  God.  And  it  seems  that 
it  was  at  this  point,  when  something  whispered  to 
them  that  there  was  no  hope,  that  they  were  lost 


l66      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

forever,  that  the  pains  of  the  body  occurred  and 
wrung  from  them  the  loud  and  bitter  cries.1 

There  is  material  here  for  an  interesting  study 
in  religious  psychology,  but  I  let  it  stand  for  the 
present  simply  as  further  illustration  of  the  fact 
that  the  burst  of  phenomena  occurred  among  the 
primitives  of  England,  in  the  Kingswood  of  the 
west  and  the  Kingswood  of  the  north.  Experience 
and  environment  had  never  developed  the  inhibi- 
tions of  civilization,  and  they  were  ripe  for  the 
effects  that  were  actually  produced. 

But  why  did  the  coming  of  Wesley  first  arouse 
the  manifestations  in  these  primitive  people  ? 
Whitefield  preached  first  to  the  colliers  of  Kings- 
wood  until,  we  are  touchingly  told,  "  the  tears  made 
white  gutters  down  cheeks  blackened  from  the 
coal-mine."  They  gathered  in  the  fields,  in  thrill- 
ing, enthusiastic  audiences  of  five,  ten,  fifteen 
thousand  people,  but  there  were  no  strange  "  signs 
and  wonders  "  till  Wesley  came.  Was  it  the  char- 
acter of  his  message  ?  Wesley  was  indeed  still 
under  bondage  to  the  terror  theology  of  his  age. 
I  happened  the  other  day  upon  this  passage  in  one 
j)f  his  sermons.2 

"  What  is  the  pain  of  the  body  which  you  do  or 
may  endure  to  that  of  lying  in  a  lake  of  fire  burn- 
ing with  brimstone  ?  When  you  ask  a  friend  who 
is  sick  how  he  does  — '  I  am  in  pain  now,'  says  he, 
'  but  I  hope  to  be  easy  soon.'  That  is  a  sweet  miti- 
gation of  the  present  uneasiness.  But  how  dread- 

1  "Journal,"  Vol.  I,  p.  281  2  Vol.  II,  sermon  on  "  Hell." 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       l6/ 

ful  would  his  case  be  if  he  should  answer,  '  I  am 
all  over  pain,  and  I  shall  be  never  easy  of  it.  I 
lie  under  exquisite  torment  of  body  and  horror  of 
soul,  and  I  shall  feel  it  forever !  '  Such  is  the  case 
of  the  damned  sinners  in  hell." 

This  is  not  cheerful  preaching,  and  it  measures 
up  very  well  with  the  worst  of  Edwards'.  But  I 
think  one  cannot  look  his  journal  and  sermons  over 
without  being  convinced  that  impassioned  appeals 
to  terror  were  uncommon  with  Wesley.  I  do  not 
mean  that  he  did  not  lay  bare  the  sins  of  his  gen- 
eration and  of  the  audiences  before  him  with  an 
unsparing  hand  and  make  very  plain  to  them  the 
proximity  of  the  pit  toward  which  their  feet  were 
sliding.  He  did  that  with  great  power.  I  only 
mean  that  the  awful  messages  of  woe  which  the 
theology  and  the  rich  imagination  of  Edwards 
made  it  possible  for  him  to  produce,  were  not  the 
chief  exciting  cause  of  the  strange  effects  under 
the  ministry  of  Wesley.  Wesley  believed  in  ever- 
lasting torment  for  the  wicked  as  really  as  Edwards, 
but  here  was  the  difference.  The  English  leader 
proclaimed  every  man  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and 
death  who  in  the  untrammelled  exercise  of  his  will 
should  turn  to  God.  Edwards'  belief  led  him  to 
consign  to  perdition  the  majority  of  each  passing 
generation.  Every  man  was  exhorted  to  be  violent 
for  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  the  chance  of  his 
obtaining  it  was  by  no  means  as  hopeful  and  inspir- 
ing as  that  which  Wesley  held  out  to  men.  Fear 
of  eternal  retribution  was  no  doubt  one  reason  for 


1 68       PRIMITIVE   TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

the  crushing  weight  which  fell  upon  the  souls  of 
the  colliers  of  Kingswood  and  the  north.  But 
Whitefield  spoke  that  message,  and  the  brother 
Charles,  —  yet  there  were  no  strange  phenomena 
till  Wesley  initiated  them. 

Fear  and  other  strong  emotions  aroused  in  a 
susceptible  population  may  be  regarded  as  im- 
portant predisposing  conditions.  The  exciting 
cause  of  the  reflex  phenomena  was  the  man 
Wesley.  It  was  the  quality  of  his  personality 
more  than  the  quality  of  his  message  that  pro- 
duced the  effects.  Wesley  was  in  manner  the  an- 
tithesis of  Whitefield,  whose  action  in  the  pulpit 
he  regarded  as  too  violent.1  But  in  spite  of  the 
perfect  outward  calmness  and  self-possession,  he 
was  probably  the  most  terribly  impressive  preacher 
that  England  ever  knew.  It  would  be  hard  to 
mention  a  man  whose  influence  over  an  audience 
can  be  so  perfectly  described  by  the  term  "  awful." 
If  it  were  not  such  a  hateful  word  when  applied  to 
so  complex  and  noble  a  personality,  one  would  say 
that  it  closely  approached  the  hypnotic.  And  I 
think  there  was  a  strong  element  of  this  in  his 
nature.  There  were  few  men,  or  mobs  either,  for 
that  matter,  that  did  not  surrender  to  the  look  of 
his  searching  eye.  He  says  in  his  journal  that  he 
found  it  best  always  to  face  a  mob.  His  usual 
method  was  to  single  out  the  leader  and  bring  all 
the  calmness,  courtesy,  dignity  and  strength  which 
he  possessed  to  bear  upon  the  one  man.  And  it 

14<  Journal,"  Vol.  II,  p.  498. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       169 

seldom  failed.  On  one  occasion  there  was  a  con- 
certed plan  to  disturb  an  evening  meeting  at  Long- 
lane,  London.  A  violent  and  notorious  woman 
was  the  leader.  Wesley  says  that  the  very  instant 
she  broke  out  he  turned  full  upon  her  and  declared 
the  love  God  had  for  her  soul,  and  then  prayed 
for  God  to  confirm  the  word.  "  She  was  struck  to 
the  heart,  and  shame  covered  her  face.  From  her 
I  turned  to  the  rest,  who  melted  away  like  water, 
and  were  as  men  that  had  no  strength." l  And 
this  is  no  isolated  circumstance.  We  meet  its  like 
frequently  in  the  journal.  Such  was  the  over- 
whelming influence  of  the  man  that  those  who 
were  not  ready  to  submit  to  his  will  and  his  mes- 
sage were  afraid  to  listen  to  him.'2  It  was  the  same 
in  his  private  life.  A  half-superstitious  dread  of 
the  man  affected  even  his  brother  Charles.  And 
his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Whitelamb,  who  had  known 
him  from  the  old  Oxford  days,  preferred  to  write 
to  him  about  a  matter  rather  than  run  the  gant- 
let of  a  personal  interview.  "  I  am  at  a  loss  how 
to  behave,"  he  said  in  his  letter;  "your  presence 
creates  an  awe,  as  though  you  were  an  inhabitant 
of  another  world." 

Whitefield  was  emotional,  sympathetic,  magnetic, 
but  Wesley  was  overpowering.  Whitefield  had  a 
vivid  imagination,  and  his  wonderful  word-pictures 
and  his  eyes  suffused  with  tears  drew  outward  the 
emotions  of  his  auditors,  and  they  wept  with  him. 

1  "Journal,"  Vol.  I,  p.  191. 

8  Cf.  Buckley,  "  History  of  Methodism,"  Vol.  I,  p.  329. 


I/O      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

The  energy  of  the  organism,  set  free  by  the  stimu- 
lation of  his  preaching,  followed  this  particular 
channel.  Wesley's  example  of  calm  self-possession 
thwarted  the  outflow  in  the  form  of  the  quieter 
and  saner  emotions,  while  the  shock  of  his  domi- 
nating and  fascinating  personality,  his  plain  and 
searching  speech  and  his  demand  for  instantane- 
ous decision  fell  with  terrific  force  upon  the  plas- 
tic mental  and  nervous  organization  of  his  hearers. 
The  pent-up  energy  found  vent  in  almost  every 
conceivable  form  of  muscular  reflex  action,  and 
finally  into  cries  and  groanings  and  terrors  of  im- 
pending judgment.1 

I  am  not  speaking  of  the  results  of  all  this, 
which  were  often  salutary,  contributing  to  real 
transformation  of  character.  I  am  speaking  of  the 
process.  Whitefield's  was  certainly  as  divine  as 
Wesley's.  The  difference  in  the  immediate  effect 
of  the  two  processes,  the  population  remaining  the 
same,  is  certainly  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  dif- 
ference in  the  personality  of  the  two  men.  The 
power  of  fascination  and  suggestion  appears  usu- 
ally to  accompany  a  high  quality  of  will.  Did 
ever  Cromwell  or  Napoleon  exhibit  to  the  world 
finer  volitional  fibre  than  Wesley  ? 

The  reader  will  not  make  the  mistake  of  suppos- 
ing that  I  believe  the  whole  secret  of  Wesley's 
influence  is  to  be  found  in  this  extraordinary 
power  of  impression  and  suggestion  which  he  pos- 
sessed. The  human  personality  is  a  marvellous 

1  Cf.  "  Journal,"  Vol.  I,  p.  281. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       I/I 

complex,  and  that  there  were  elements  of  the  high- 
est ethical,  intellectual  and,  in  the  best  sense, 
religious  power  in  John  Wesley,  I  do  not  doubt. 
To  say  that  these  qualities  did  not  reenforce  the 
great  influence  of  impression  and  suggestion  which 
he  exerted  upon  men,  would  be  absurd.  They 
were  even  in  combination  with  it  at  all  times. 
But  they  do  not  account  for  that  mysterious  influ- 
ence which  differentiated  him  from  Whitefield  and 
from  other  religious  leaders. 

These  grewsome  happenings  under  Wesley's 
own  preaching  attained  their  maximum  of  inten- 
sity within  a  year  or  two,  and  after  1740  he  mani- 
fested in  his  own  spirit  a  healthy,  well-balanced 
religious  experience,  and  until  the  close  of  a  further 
half  century  of  tireless  toil  there  is  evidence  that 
he  gave  less  encouragement  to  the  spread  of  the 
"  signs  and  wonders "  than  in  the  early  period. 
Certainly  they  were  far  less  common  than  when  in 
the  year  1739  the  shock  of  his  personality  was  first 
felt  among  the  colliers  of  Kingswood.  Like  Ed- 
wards, however,  he  cannot  escape  a  measure  of 
responsibility  for  the  wild  excesses  of  some  of  his 
followers.  No  community  ever  saw  more  terrible 
scenes  of  mental  and  nervous  disorder  than  are 
described  in  the  journal  as  having  occurred  under 
the  preaching  of  one  Berridge  and  one  Hicks  in 
the  vicinity  of  Everton,  almost  under  the  shadow 
of  the  University  of  Cambridge.  Wesley  had  the 
facts  from  the  journal  of  an  eye-witness.  It  is  a 
horrible  account  of  a  reign  of  terror  under  the 


1/2       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

preaching  of  these  men,  who  were  passing  sen- 
tence of  death  upon  the  souls  of  suffocating 
multitudes  who  filled  the  church  to  listen.  The 
picture  of  the  agonies  and  contortions  of  body  of 
many  little  children,  the  loud  breathing  of  men 
and  women  half  strangled  and  gasping  for  life,  the 
outcries,  the  bitter  anguish,  the  faces  turning  red 
and  then  almost  black,  the  sinking  in  silence,  the 
convulsions,  the  awful  morbid  contagion  that  swept 
over  the  stifled  crowd,  the  numbers  carried  into 
the  parsonage  house,  where  they  struggled  or  lay 
as  dead,  the  breaking  of  pews  and  benches,  the 
dropping  in  a  heap  on  the  road  home,  the  trance, 
the  demoniac  shrieks,  the  emergence  of  the  second 
personality,  the  uncontrollable  laughter,  the  child 
seven  years  old  and  her  visions,  the  woman  rolling 
on  the  ground  and  tearing  up  the  hard-trodden 
grass  with  her  hands,  the  almost  limitless  supersti- 
tion of  Berridge  and  his  people  —  that  picture  will 
never  fade  from  the  memory  of  the  man  who  has 
once  read  the  description.1  The  experiences  in 
trance  were  as  irrational  as  ever  floated  through  the 
untutored  brain  of  an  African  savage.  One  girl,  who 
had  "come  through"  after  shrieking  and  insensibil- 
ity and  violent  distortion  of  face,  related  that  in  the 
swoon  she  thought  herself  on  an  island  and  saw 
Satan  in  a  hideous  form  just  ready  to  devour  her, 
hell  all  around  open  to  receive  her  and  herself  just 
ready  to  drop  in.  But  just  as  she  was  dropping, 
the  Lord  appeared  between  her  and  the  gulf  and 

1  See  "  Journal,"  Vol.  II,  p.  25  f.  and  p.  34  f. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       173 

would  not  let  her  fall.  And  one  John  Dennis  lay 
on  a  table  stiff  and  motionless  as  a  statue,  his  very 
neck  as  if  made  of  iron,  looking  steadfastly  up  to 
heaven  and  praying  aloud  with  a  melodious  voice 
and  with  great  intelligence.  Berridge  assured  the 
assembly  that  they  needed  no  better  preacher,  for 
none  could  unfold  the  truths  of  the  gospel  more 
clearly.  When  the  subject  came  out  of  the  fit,  he 
was  in  perfect  health,  but  declared  he  knew  not  a 
word  of  all  he  had  spoken. 

And  this  was  in  1759,  twenty  years  after  Kings- 
wood,  and  still  Wesley  was  not  entirely  ready  to 
give  over  the  manifestations.  But  his  judgment 
was  shaken  somewhat  by  the  sudden  dying  away 
of  the  trances,  convulsions  and  visions  in  Everton, 
although  the  religious  interest  remained  strong. 
And,  true  Englishman  that  he  was,  he  could  modify 
his  former  belief,  but  could  not  wholly  change  it. 
He  thinks  there  was  danger  at  one  time  of  regard- 
ing the  extraordinary  circumstances  as  essential. 
He  thinks  perhaps  now  the  danger  may  be  of  con- 
demning them  altogether,  of  imagining  that  they 
are  a  hindrance,  with  nothing  of  God  in  them. 
The  truth  is,  he  says,  that  God  in  the  former  time 
did  visit  lost  sinners  with  such  conviction  that  the 
natural  consequence  was  outcry  and  convulsion, 
that  he  favored  several  of  them  with  divine  dreams 
and  others  with  trances  and  visions.  But  after  a 
while  there  was  some  "  nature  "  mixed  with  grace, 
and  finally  Satan  stepped  in  and  imitated  the  work 
in  order  to  discredit  it.  It  was  originally  wholly 


174      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

from  God ;  it  is  partly  so  still,  but  Satan  is  now 
responsible  for  a  share.1  In  Leslie  Stephen's 
phrase  of  comment  —  "a  singular  cooperation  be- 
tween God  and  the  devil ! " 

If  the  discussion  of  these  phenomena  appears  to 
fill  too  large  a  space  upon  the  horizon  of  my  theme, 
I  regret  it.  They  are  important  to  the  student  of 
a  great  sympathetic  religious  movement,  for  they 
frequently  accompany  it  and  lay  bare  its  social 
character  and  conformity  to  social  law.  Sym- 
pathetic social  action  lifts  the  inhibition  from  the 
individual,  and  reveals  the  nervous  instability,  the 
mental  plasticity,  the  suggestibility,  if  you  will,  of 
primitive  man.  But  when  we  recall  how  dim  the 
light  of  science  shone  in  the  eighteenth  century, 
we  need  not  fear  that  these  phenomena  and  the 
superstitious  explanation  of  them  will  cloud  a  fair 
name.  They  are  an  incident  in  the  life  and  a 
single  blot  upon  the  fame  of  a  great  and  useful 
man. 

And  I  revert  finally  to  what  was  basal  in  him 
when  I  say  that,  take  him  all  in  all,  his  whole  life 
through,  England  had  no  more  sane,  conservative, 
statesmanlike  spirit  within  her  borders  in  his  cen- 
tury. He  grew  to  be  the  very  embodiment  of  the 
sound  sense  of  the  Saxon,  his  controlling  emotion 
came  to  be  the  love  of  his  fellow-man  and  he  gave 
himself  throughout  a  long  life  with  the  utter 
abandon  of  unselfishness  to  the  cause  of  the  Eng- 
lish people.  For  years  before  he  died  he  was  per- 

1  "Journal,"  Vol.  II,  p.  49. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       1/5 

haps  the  best-known  and,  at  least  among  the 
masses,  the  most  honored  man  within  the  circuit 
of  the  three  kingdoms. 

It  seems  the  irony  of  circumstance  that  one  of 
his  temper  should  have  been  mobbed  as  a  revolu- 
tionist so  often  and  so  long.  There  was  nothing 
in  him  of  the  political  radicalism  of  the  Round- 
head or  the  Covenanter.  For  the  democracy  of 
the  state  within  the  constitution  he  cared  not  at 
all.  The  polity  of  his  own  organization  was  auto- 
cratic in  the  extreme.  "  If  by  arbitrary  power," 
he  said  to  his  critics,  "  you  mean  a  power  which  I 
exercise  simply  without  any  colleagues  therein, 
this  is  certainly  true,  but  I  see  no  hurt  in  it."  His 
giant  blows  were  struck  for  the  ethical  and  spiritual 
vivification  of  the  state  behind  the  constitution. 
We  can  best  measure  his  influence,  not  by  the 
number  of  the  converts,  although  their  name  was 
legion.  The  roster  of  the  truly  good  is  nowhere 
fully  and  accurately  kept  upon  this  planet.  But 
we  have  a  test  in  the  new  life  which  he  summoned 
into  consciousness  and  sent  throbbing  through  the 
pulses  of  the  nation.  His  greatest  service  was  not 
to  the  church,  but  to  democracy.  He  was  first  of 
all  a  champion  of  the  new  life  spiritual,  but  he 
aroused  also  in  the  vast  human  area  which  he 
influenced  an  intense  aspiration  for  the  new  life 
mental,  social  and  political.  The  very  gathering 
of  such  masses  of  men  with  a  common  purpose 
was  in  unconscious  sympathy  with  the  drift  of  the 
age.  Its  like  had  never  been  known  before  in 


1/6       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

England.  The  fundamental  democratic  right  of 
assembly  was  not  yet  evolved.  Legal  permission 
had  still  to  be  obtained  from  some  administrative 
officer  of  the  crown.  The  religious  revival  broke 
that  barrier  down,  and  gave  the  great  body  of  the 
English  people  their  first  sense  of  latent,  aggregate 
power.  Wesley's  system  of  printing  and  distribut- 
ing letters  of  advice  and  appeal  to  the  thousands 
of  his  converts  was  consciously  or  unconsciously 
imitated  in  the  politics  of  the  late  eighteenth  and 
early  nineteenth  century.  The  great  mass  meet- 
ing, the  platform  speech,  the  political  pamphlet 
freely  and  widely  distributed  —  these  were  the 
very  organs  of  public  opinion  in  the  democratic 
movement,  and  they  were  in  large  measure  the 
outgrowth  of  the  revival.1 

England  escaped  the  excesses  of  a  French  revo- 
lution. Such  a  method  of  securing  liberty  and  prog- 
ress is  not  thoroughly  in  accord  with  the  English 
mind,  although  not  entirely  contrary  to  it.  Neither 
was  the  wrong  so  deep,  the  burden  so  grfevous  on 
the  island  side  of  the  Channel.  But  nevertheless, 
there  was  vast  social  unrest  which  might  easily 
have  been  stirred  to  disorder  and  disruption.  In 
certain  places  and  at  certain  times  the  revival  did 
arouse  primitive  instinct  and  irrational  reflex  action 

1  Cf.  Ostrogorski,  "  Democracy  and  the  Organization  of  Political 
Parties,"  p.  25  f.  ;  also  Jephson,  "The  Platform,"  p.  6  f. 

The  pamphlet  had  been  employed  in  the  time  of  the  Restoration 
and  earlier,  but  had  never  been  so  general  and  so  powerful  an  instru- 
ment of  appeal  as  in  the  Wesleyan  and  the  democratic  movements. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    SOCIAL    EVOLUTION       1/7 

after  a  fashion  to  be  deplored.  But  in  the  long 
range  of  the  years  of  Wesley's  leadership  and 
labor,  slowly  another  result  emerged.  Brutal 
passion  was  softened  to  an  extraordinary  degree. 
The  released  volume  of  emotion  rolled  into  the 
channel  of  inspiring  religious  song.  Scores  of 
thousands  of  men  all  over  the  nation  were  bound 
together  by  the  bonds  of  sympathy  and  brother- 
hood, not  only  for  their  own  class,  but,  in  a  meas- 
ure, for  every  class.  And  a  French  Revolution, 
improbable  in  any  event,  was  rendered  impossible. 

The  revival  was  strong  in  the  towns.  And  when 
the  industrial  disturbances  of  later  days  reached  a 
maximum  of  intensity  and  peril,  the  labor  movement 
was  to  a  marked  extent  leavened  by  the  chapel  and 
class  meeting  of  Wesley's  societies.  In  them  work- 
ingmen  for  two  generations  had  been  trained  not 
only  in  sympathy,  but  in  organization,  in  financial 
administration,  in  methods  of  communication.  The 
local  preacher  and  the  labor  leader  became  for  a 
long  period  almost  synonymous  terms.  And  it  is 
impossible  to  doubt  that  at  least  one  of  the  sources 
of  the  sanity  and  intelligence  of  the  trades-union 
movement  in  Great  Britain  is  the  Wesleyan  re- 
vival. 

Even  when  a  kind  of  Puritan  asceticism,  mani- 
festing itself  in  distrust  of  adornment  and  other 
forms  of  pleasure,  set  in  to  narrow  somewhat  the 
outlook  and  consequently  the  spirit  of  Wesley's 
followers,1  in  society  at  large  the  movement  was 

1  Cf.  Ostrogorski,  op.  cit.,  p.  25  f. 
M 


1/8       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

still  a  force  making  for  the  freedom  and  the  broad- 
ening of  human  personality,  and  a  better  environ- 
ment for  all  classes  of  the  English  population. 
For  more  than  fifty  years  Wesley  himself  ranged 
the  three  kingdoms,  a  mounted  herald  of  social 
regeneration.  Everywhere  he  preached  the  gospel, 
not  only  of  righteousness  and  temperance  and 
judgment  to  come,  but  of  intelligence,  thrift,  clean- 
liness and  good  manners.  He  was  a  philanthro- 
pist to  the  extent  of  distributing  the  whole  of  his 
substance  among  the  needy.  There  was  not  a 
practical  reform  mooted  in  eighteenth-century 
England  which  he  did  not  further  with  his  voice 
and  with  his  pen.  He  advocated  a  more  equitable 
system  of  taxation.  His  arguments  for  juster  Par- 
liamentary representation  were  made  seventy  years 
before  the  reform  was  accomplished,  but  they  were 
as  strong  as  any  that  were  advanced  on  the  eve  of 
its  fruition.  He  lent  active  aid  to  the  cause  of  the 
prisoner,  the  lunatic,  the  debtor  and  the  slave.  In 
all  these  matters  he  was  only  an  evangel.  The 
reforms  were  demanded  by  the  spirit  of  the  age, 
and  more  potent  and  active  agents  than  he  were 
directly  concerned  in  their  fulfilment.  But  the 
spirit  of  the  movement  which  he  inaugurated 
strongly  reenforced  the  spirit  of  the  age.  It  is  due 
to  this  capacity  for  what  has  been  happily  called 
"the  statesmanship  of  salvation"  1  that  the  move- 
ment which  he  inaugurated  presents  the  aspect  not 
of  an  injurious  recoil,  but  rather  of  a  great  purify- 

1  President  Woodrow  Wilson. 


WESLEY    AND    ENGLISH    -SOCIAL    EVOLUTION        I/Q 

ing  social  force  working  steadily  for  the  evolution 
and  regeneration  of  society.  And  it  is  this  emi- 
nent service  to  his  country  and  his  century  which 
entitles  him  to  be  known  as  the  social  figure,  par 
excellence,  among  modern  revivalists. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN   THE  UNITED   STATES 

NETTLETON,  FINNEY  AND    MOODY 

THE  fifty  years  of  popular  indifference  to  reli- 
gion which  followed  hard  upon  the  New  England 
awakening  were  destined  to  be  succeeded  by  a 
surprising  recrudescence  of  revival  interest  and 
activity  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States  in  the 
early  nineteenth  century.  Not  only  in  the  new 
settlements  of  the  southwest,  but  throughout  the 
northern  and  eastern  sections  of  the  country,  and 
especially  in  western  New  York,  the  revival  fires 
burned  unrestrainedly  and  long.  In  New  England 
the  spirit  and  method  of  Edwards  were  renewed 
in  the  personality  and  practice  of  Asabel  Nettleton. 
Nettleton  enjoyed  the  vivid  religious  experience  of 
Edwards,  and  accepted  the  Edwardean  doctrine  as 
an  explanation  of  his  own  spiritual  struggle  and 
triumph.  He  was  thus  naturally  led  to  adopt  the 
Edwardean  method  of  practical  effort  for  the  salva- 
tion of  men.  It  was  his  custom  to  awaken  sinners 
by  the  able  and  fervid  proclamation  of  God's 
sovereignty  and  His  law,  with  its  dread  sanctions 
and  solemn  claims.  Here  he  was  at  one  with 
Edwards.  But  as  soon  as  the  first  blows  were 
i  So 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES       l8l 

struck  and  the  influence  of  them  was  passing 
away,  and  there  seemed  danger  of  the  sinner  set- 
tling down  in  presumptuous  confidence  that  the 
Spirit  was  already  working  in  his  heart,  and  that 
he  need  only  employ  the  means  of  grace  and  bide 
God's  time  —  then  Nettleton  declared  the  doctrine 
of  election  with  super-Edwardean  zeal.  He  stood 
ready  to  press  home  the  utter  vanity  of  any  at- 
tempt of  man  to  save  his  own  soul,  even  to  the 
point  of  stirring  rebellion  in  the  sinner's  heart 
against  "  a  God  that  commands  sinners  to  do  what 
it  requires  Almighty  power  to  cause  them  to  do." 
Fear  of  hell  and  a  partial  conviction  of  sin  were 
thus  deepened  into  despair  and  a  sense  of  absolute 
helplessness.  This  terrible  agony  must  not  be 
lessened,  but  increased  the  rather  and  allowed  to 
weigh  upon  the  rebellious  soul  until  real  conver- 
sion come  and  joy  and  peace  succeed  to  trouble 
and  distress.1  But  in  one  important  respect  Net- 
tleton marked  an  advance  upon  Edwards.  It  was 
indeed  true  that  he  played  upon  the  chord  of  fear, 
but  he  was  from  the  beginning  a  most  vigorous 
opponent  of  all  uncontrolled  outbursts  of  emotion. 
He  was  the  foe  of  sensation,  of  mere  physical  and 
mental  excitement,  even  of  publicity.  He  en- 
deavored to  instil  the  spirit  of  meditation,  of  deep 
and  quiet  reverence,  in  his  hearers.  He  was  an 
individualist  in  his  methods.  He  advised  his  con- 
verts to  retire  to  their  homes  without  converse  with 
the  crowd,  and,  entirely  apart  from  its  influence,  to 

1  Hayes,  op.  cit.,  seminar  paper  on  the  New  England  revivals 


l82       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

reflect  in  the  companionship  of  their  Maker  alone 
upon  the  things  they  had  heard.  He  visited  the 
awakened  from  house  to  house,  and  the  personal 
touch  of  the  man  combined  with  his  careful  system 
of  sifting  and  instruction  wrought  a  permanent  in- 
fluence upon  many  lives. 

Probably  the  leading  evangelist  of  the  first  half 
of  the  nineteenth  century  in  America  was  Charles 
G.  Finney,  a  contemporary  of  Nettleton,  though 
he  survived  him  many  years.  With  Finney  came 
the  strong  common-sense  reaction  in  revival  philos- 
ophy and  sentiment  against  the  hyper-Calvinism 
of  the  earlier  day.  He  could  not  disentangle  him- 
self completely  from  the  notion  of  election ;  for  ever, 
according  to  his  view,  it  was  God  who,  in  the  last 
analysis,  pressed  the  truth  home  to  the  conscience 
and  induced  the  sinner  to  turn  into  the  way  of 
righteousness.  And  he  was  no  more  successful 
after  all  than  Edwards  in  harmonizing  human 
responsibility  with  the  doctrine  of  the  absolute 
sovereignty^  .the  .Supreme  Being.  But  he  stood 
at  the  turn  of  the  tide,  and  with  all  the  strength  of 
a  really  vigorous  intellect  he  repudiated  the  theo- 
logical concept  of  the  total  depravity  of  humanity, 
and  espoused  with  vehemence  the  notion  of  moral 
agency,  that  the  will  of  man  is  free  to  choose  be- 
tween the  motives  that  come  to  it  through  reason 
and  emotion. 

The  field  of  his  labor  was  the  entire  eastern 
United  States,  but  the  propagating  centre  of  his 
influence  and  the  locality  of  his  greatest  successes 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES       183 

was  the  pioneer  community  of  western  and  cen- 
tral New  York.  It  would  be  a  profitable  study  to 
determine  the  strange  mixture  of  elements  which 
must  have  entered  originally  into  the  remarkable 
population  of  the  western  New  York  section  par- 
ticularly. There  seem  to  have  been  two  periods 
of  migration  thither,  with'  two  vastly  different  qual- 
ities of  human  stock.  The  second  decade  of  the 
nineteenth  century  brought  to  the  Palmyra  country 
settlers  from  Vermont  of  rather  unsavory  fame, 
represented  notably  by  the  tribe  of  the  Smiths,  from 
whose  loins  sprang  Mormonism.  In  the  third 
decade  came  a  young,  virile,  intelligent,  industrious 
people  from  eastern  New  York  and  New  England. 
They  are  responsible  for  that  strain  of  intellectual, 
moral  and  industrial  strength  which  has  especially 
characterized  the  Rochester  country.  But  the 
mixture  of  elements  has  given  to  that  section  a 
psychological  history  of  its  own.  It  has  been  a 
hot-bed  of  fanaticisms  as  well  as  a  centre  of  sane 
and  progressive  social  movements.  The  earliest 
agitation  which  helped  to  reveal  the  unfortunate 
strain  in  the  blood  was  the  crusade  against  the 
Masonic  Fraternity  in  1826,  originating  in  a  wide- 
spread belief,  unconfirmed  by  sound  evidence,  that 
one  Morgan  had  been  foully  dealt  with  at  the  be- 
hest of  the  Order  whose  secrets  he  was  accused  of 
revealing.  A  single  and  mighty  wave  of  indigna- 
tion nearly  obliterated  the  fraternity  from  that  part 
of  the  United  States.  In  the  early  forties  the 
Rochester  country  was  one  of  the  two  chief  cen- 


184      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

tres  of  the  propaganda  and  excitement  associated 
with  the  predictions  of  the  Vermont  farmer,  William 
Miller,  with  respect  to  the  approaching  judgment 
and  the  destruction  of  the  world.  In  western  New 
York  it  became  a  thoroughly  irrational  epidemic. 
Men  and  women  forsook  their  employments  and 
gave  themselves  over  to  watchings  and  prayer. 
They  hardly  slept  or  ate,  but  in  robes  of  white 
awaited  .the  coming  of  the  bridegroom.  The  re- 
sult in  very  many  cases  was  utter  physical  and 
mental  exhaustion,  ending  in  the  horrors  of  insanity. 

The  tendency  to  outbursts  of  religious  fanati- 
cism was  especially  marked  in  this  population. 
In  the  late  forties  the  delusion  of  spiritualism 
entered  upon  its  epidemic  course  with  the  "  Roch- 
ester rappings  "  of  the  Fox  sisters.  It  spread  by 
imitation  to  New  England,  and  thence  to  Europe, 
and  many  of  the  phenomena  attending  it  —  the 
trance,  the  vision,  the  convulsive  movement,  the 
involuntary  dancing,  the  many  indications  of 
mental  and  nervous  instability  — •  had  closest  af- 
finity to  the  extraordinary  revival  effects  which 
we  have  everywhere  observed. 

It  is  important  to  notice  that  for  many  years 
during  this  early  period  an  unbridled  revival 
activity  characterized  the  ordinary  religious  life  of 
western  New  York.  Before  Finney's  personality 
issued  upon  the  scene,  before  any  particular  in- 
dividual assumed  the  leadership,  this  fanatical  rest- 
lessness, this  tendency  to  spiritual  commotion,  was 
in  the  mind  of  the  population,  and  periodically 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES        1 8$ 

broke  forth  in  fantastic  and  exciting  revival.  There 
were  whole  stretches  of  country  in  those  parts  that 
for  generations  were  known  as  the  "  burnt  district," 
and  which  Finney  found  so  blistered  and  withered 
by  constant  revival  flame  that  no  sprout,  no  blade 
of  spiritual  life,  could  be  caused  to  grow.  Only 
the  apples  of  Sodom  flourished  in  the  form  of 
ignorance,  intolerance,  a  boasted  sinlessness  and  a 
tendency  to  free-love  and  "  spiritual  affinities."  I 
speak  of  this  in  the  first  place  to  indicate  the 
primitive  character  of  a  large  element  of  the  popu- 
lation within  the  environment  of  western  New 
York  and  its  vicinity  in  the  early  decades  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  and  thus  furnish  a  factor  in  the 
explanation  of  Finney's  remarkable  career.  When 
he  began  to  preach,  the  border  of  that  part  of  the 
country  was  still  a  western  wilderness,  the  farms 
had  to  be  burned  out  of  the  forests,  the  Indians 
were  on  the  frontier,  the  possibilities  of  education 
were  meagre  and  the  means  of  communication  were 
few.1  But  I  speak  of  it  also  because  I  wish  to  re- 
mark upon  one  other  strange  and  base  spiritual 
product  of  this  unique  population.  Of  course  it  is 
generally  known  that  Mormonism  had  its  begin- 
ning in  this  region,  but  it  is  not  so  generally  under- 
stood, I  think,  that  Mormonism  was  literally  born 
and  bred  in  the  unhealthy  revival  atmosphere  which 
has  just  been  described.  In  fact  the  sect  of  so- 
called  Latter-Day  Saints  might  never  have  existed 

1  Cf.  President  Timothy  Dwight's  "Travels  in  New  England  and 
New  York,"  1822,  Letters  II  and  III. 


186      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

except  for  the  extraordinary  mental  agitation 
about  religious  matters  which  pervaded  western 
New  York  in  this  period.  Mormonism  has  two 
main  roots,  the  one  to  be  traced  into  the  mental 
and  nervous  characteristics  of  the  personality  of 
Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  the  other  into  the  revival  en- 
vironment in  which  he  lived  and  moved  —  and 
neither  is  a  sufficient  explanation  without  the  other. 
Smith  inherited  from  an  illiterate,  restless,  credu- 
'lous,  nervously  unstable  ancestry  a  well-marked 
tendency  to  visions,  hallucinations,  revelations. 
The  Book  of  Mormon,  even  if  considered  to  be  the 
intellectual  product  of  Smith,  is  understandable  in 
terms  of  his  imaginative,  emotional  personality,  with 
its  trancelike  states  and  revelations,  its  hallucina- 
tions and  belief  in  miraculous  cures.  The  book  is 
an  irrational  mixture  of  prevailing  ecclesiasticism 
and  liberalism,  native  in  its  historical  aspects  to  the 
New  York  wilderness  which  was  its  author's  home. 
And  it  is  especially  noteworthy  that  the  whole 
panorama  of  the  visions  of  the  Smiths,  father  and 
son,  springs  out  of  the  environment  and  arises  in  the 
midst  of  the  mental  perturbation  of  the  community.1 
The  revival  methods  of  religious  work  in  this  locality 
at  this  time  had  been  directly  imitated  from  Ken- 
tucky and  Tennessee.  It  is  exceedingly  significant 
that  when  the  attention  of  this  population  became 
fixed  upon  the  great  religious  movements  in  the 
southwest,  the^seriousness  and  excitement  in  New 
York  State  began  in  Palmyra,  Joseph  Smith's  own 

1  Cf.  Riley,  "The  Founder  of  Mormonism,"  Chapters  I  and  II. 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN   THE   UNITED    STATES        1 87 

town,  and  nearly  all  the  youth  and  children  of  the 
community  at  once  sought  religion.  The  mental 
tension  of  the  "  protracted  meetings  "  is  indicated 
by  the  testimony  of  a  prominent  Mormon  of  a 
later  time  who  took  part  in  them.  "  A  continual 
stream  of  glorious  truths  passed  through  my  mind, 
my  happiness  was  great,  and  my  mind  so  absorbed 
in  spiritual  things  that  all  the  time  the  meeting 
lasted,  which  was  about  fifteen  days,  I  scarcely  ate 
or  drank  anything.  .  .  .  The  spirit  of  the  Lord 
so  operated  on  my  system  that  I  felt  full  all  the 
time." l  And  young  Joseph  Smith  himself  has 
borne  witness  that  his  first  great  psychic  experi- 
ences were  aroused  by  revival.  His  "  First  Vision  " 
came  about  in  this  wise.  "  Sometime  in  the  second 
year  after  our  removal  to  Manchester,  there  was 
in  the  place  where  we  lived  an  unusual  excitement 
on  the  subject  of  religion.  .  .  .  During  this  time 
.  .  .  my  mind  was  called  up  to  serious  reflection 
and  great  uneasiness.  ...  I  attended  there  several 
meetings  as  often  as  occasion  would  permit."  And 
he  proceeds  to  relate  that  one  clear  spring  morning, 
in  the  year  1820,  under  the  influence  of  the  spell 
which  bound  him,  he  retired  to  a  secret  place  to 
wrestle  with  God  in  prayer.  Immediately  he  was 
seized  by  some  power  which  entirely  overcame 
him  so  that  he  could  not  speak.  Thick  darkness 
gathered  around  him,  and  he  seemed  doomed  to 
sudden  destruction.  "  Just  at  this  moment  of  great 

1  Benjamin  Brown,  "Testimonies  for  the  Truth,"  1853,  p.  5  ; 
quoted  in  Riley,  op.  cit. 


1 88      PRIMITIVE   TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

alarm,"  he  says,  "  I  saw  a  pillar  of  light  exactly  over 
my  head,  above  the  brightness  of  the  sun,  which 
descended  gradually  until  it  fell  upon  me.  It  no 
sooner  appeared  than  I  found  myself  delivered.  .  .  . 
When  the  light  rested  upon  me,  I  saw  two  person- 
ages, whose  brightness  and  glory  defy  all  descrip- 
tion, standing  above  me  in  the  air.  One  of  them 
spake  unto  me.  .  .  .  When  I  came  to  myself 
again,  I  found  myself  lying  on  my  back  looking 
up  into  heaven."1  Under  these  auspices  and  out 
of  these  environing  conditions  arose  the  prophet 
and  the  sect  of  the  Latter-Day  Saints.  And  the 
early  spread  of  the  Mormon  gospel,  with  all  its 
vagaries,  was  made  possible  because  the  locality 
itself  possessed  a  large  population  element  which 
was  in  the  highest  degree  primitive  and  credulous, 
fairly  hungering  for  the  occult  and  the  marvellous. 
And  the  influence  of  the  early  revival  experiences 
can  long  be  traced  in  the  plastic  body  of  Mormon 
believers.  When  they  were  gathered  at  Kirtland, 
Ohio,  under  the  magnetic  preaching  of  Sidney 
Rigdon,  very  many  were  "  strangely  handled  by 
the  spirits."  There  were  instances  of  demoniac 
possession,  some  prophesied,  others  had  the  heavens 
opened  to  their  view,  there  was  the  swooning,  the 
disfigurement  of  countenance,  the  bodily  contortion, 
and  the  ecstasy  which  had  appeared  in  the  pro- 
tracted meetings  in  western  New  York.  There 

1  "  Pearl  of  Great  Price,"  pp.  S^^^yextracts  from  the  history  of 
Joseph  Smith,  written  by  himself  in  "Times  and  Seasons,"  Vol.  Ill; 
quoted  in  Riley,  op.  cit.,  p.  50. 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES       189 

was  also  the  gift  of  clairvoyance,  of  "  interpreta- 
tion "  and  of  "tongues."  The  acute  suggestibility 
was  so  marked  that  when  the  hands  of  the  elders 
were  laid  on  the  heads  of  the  converts,  they  would 
sink  instantaneously  in  utter  prostration  of  body 
and  of  mind.  "  Many  would  fall  upon  the  floor, 
where  they  would  lie  for  a  long  time,  apparently 
lifeless.  Thus  they  continued  these  enthusiastic 
exhibitions  for  several  weeks.  The  fits  usually 
came  on  during  or  after  their  prayer-meetings,  which 
were  held  nearly  every  evening.  The  young  men 
and  women  were  more  particularly  subject  to  this 
delirium.  They  would  exhibit  all  the  apish  actions 
imaginable,  making  most  ridiculous  grimaces,  creep- 
ing upon  their  hands  and  feet,  rolling  upon  the 
frozen  ground,  going  through  with  all  the  Indian 
modes  of  warfare,  such  as  knocking  down,  scalping, 
ripping  open  and  tearing  out  the  bowels.  At  other 
times  they  would  rim  through  the  field,  get  upon 
stumps,  preach  to  imaginary  congregations,  enter 
the  water  and  perform  all  the  ceremony  of  baptiz- 
ing. Many  would  have  fits  of  speaking  all  the 
different  Indian  dialects,  which  none  could  under- 
stand. Again  at  the  dead  hour  of  the  night,  the 
young  men  might  be  seen  running  over  the  fields 
and  hills  in  pursuit,  as  they  said,  of  the  balls  of 
fire  and  lights  which  they  saw  moving  through  the 
atmosphere."  1  The  strongly  hypnotic  personality 

1  Ezra  Booth's  letters  to  the  Rev.  Ira  Eddy  from  Nelson,  Ohio, 
September,  1831 ;  published  in  the  Ohio  Star;  quoted  in  Riley,  op. 
cit.,  pp.  267,  268. 


IQO      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

of  Smith  and  of  Rigdon  and  of  other  leaders  was 
always  an  important  factor  in  the  production  of 
these  physical  and  mental  effects  of  the  early 
period  as  well  as  in  the  growth  in  numbers  of  the 
body  of  the  "  Saints." 

I  have  made  this  rather  long  detour  to  convince 
the  reader  of  the  immense  amount  of  primitive  jn- 
stability  as  well  as  of  psychological  distemper  which 
existecTTn  the  population  of  western  New  York  and 
its  vicinity  in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
There  was  a  large  element  of  highly  neurotic  people 
who  demanded  strenuous  excitement,  and  who  were 
accustomed  to  look  for  it  particularly  in  religious 
movements.  And  it  was  this  class  which  first  fell 
under  the  potent  sway  of  Finney  and  of  the  great 
revivals  with  which  his  name  is  associated.  But  it 
is  only  just  to  say  at  once  that  Finney  was  so 
thoroughly  intellectual  in  his  preaching,  in  the 
main  so  strong  and  well  balanced  a  personality, 
that  the  time  came  soon  in  his  ministry  when  not 
only  the  primitive  people  heard  him  gladly,  but  all 
classes  flocked  to  him  for  instruction  and  for  lead- 
ing. But  there  is  little  doubt  that  it  was  this  prim- 
itive element  which  furnished  the  tinder  to  sustain 
the  revival  for  so  long  a  time  at  white  heat. 

Finney's  own  conversion  was  not  under  direct 
revival  excitement.  It  was  wrought  out  in  secret 
with  tremendous  earnestness  and  will  power  and 
intelligence.  But  when  it  became  known  in  Adams, 
Jefferson  County,  New  York,  that  this  brilliant 
young  student  of  the  law  was  to  become  a  Presby- 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES       IQI 

terian  missionary,  revival  interest  began  at  once 
and  spread  all  over  the  town,  and  from  Adams  as 
a  centre  through  nearly  all  the  communities  of  the 
county.  This  was  in  the  early  twenties  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  The  first  appearance  of  the  re- 
markable ascendency  which  Finney  exercised  over 

an  audience  came  at  Evans  Mills  when  a  Miss  G , 

who  had  been  a  member  of  the  church  for  eight 
years,  became  convinced,  during  the  progress  of 
Finney's  sermon,  that  she  had  never  known  the 
true  God,  and  the  effect  of  the  man  and  of  the 
message  was  such  that  she  had  to  be  carried  to  her 
home,  where  she  lay  in  anguish  and  without  the 
power  of  speech  for  about  the  space  of  sixteen 
hours.1  Previous  to  this  outbreak,  Finney  had 
been  considerably  discouraged  at  the  seeming 
stolidity  of  the  people,  but  now  at  once  there  en- 
sued throughout  the  community  a  state  of  wonder- 
ful conviction  of  sin  and  alarm  for  the  safety  of 
souls. 

The  law  of  origin  and  of  imitation  was  exempli- 
fied frequently  in  these  early  days  of  his  ministry,  — 
for  instance  in  a  little  village  of  Germans  not  far 
from  Evans  Mills.  The  settlement  turned  out  en 
masse  to  hear  him.  While  a  mother  in  Israel  was 
testifying  to  religious  faith,  another  woman  arose, 
crowded  her  way  in  the  presence  of  the  packed 
congregation  to  where  the  first  woman  was  relating 
her  experience,  threw  her  arms  around  her  neck, 
burst  into  tears  and  said,  "  God  bless  you,  my  sister, 

1  Finney,  "  Autobiography,"  p.  66. 


192       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

God  bless  you."  Such  a  scene  as  followed,  Finney 
found  it  difficult  to  describe  in  words.  The  whole 
congregation  responded,  the  simple  childlike  peo- 
ple fell  on  each  other's  necks  and  wer-i  melted 
into  tears.  In  a  few  days  the  whole  settlement 
was  under  conviction.1  The  evangelist  passed  on 
to  Rome,  and  that  whole  community  was  shaken 
from  centre  to  circumference.  From  Rome  the 
movement  spread  in  every  direction, —  to  Utica,  to 
Lowville,  to  Auburn,  —  and  finally  attained  a  very 
high  point  of  intensity  and  usefulness  in  the  city  of 
Rochester  in  the  winter  of  1830-1831.  There  are 
not  wanting  many  infallible  proofs  that  a  remark- 
able change  followed  in  the  direction  of  decency  and 
order  in  that  community  of  youth  and  enterprise 
but  of  moral  and  social  laxity. 

Finney's  methods  were  purposely  fashioned  to 
gain  the  attention  of  the  unawakened,  and  to  im- 
press them  with  the  necessity  of  an  immediate 
decision.  He  was  far  more  dramatic  than  Nettle- 
ton —  far  more  sensational,  to  use  a  popular  term. 
He  publicly  prayed  for  sinners  by  name.  He  was 
accused  of  irreverent  familiarity  with  God  in  prayer. 
He  made  free  use  of  the  "  anxious  seat  "  and  other 
such  devices  for  separating  the  penitent  from  his 
fellows.  He  was  an  emotionalist  in  manner.  He 
believed  that  exciting  preaching  was  needed  to 
arouse  an  unfaithful  generation,  and  he  would  not 
listen  to  the  remonstrances  of  the  school  of  Nettle- 
ton.  He  did  not,  however,  believe  in  the  saving 

1  Finney,  "  Autobiography,"  p.  73  f. 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES       193 

quality  of  unrestrained  emotion.  Personally  he 
held  himself  constantly  under  the  control  of  the 
higher  processes  of  reason  and  will.  •,  When  he 
was  engaged  in  revival  at  Bolton,  England,  he 
was  assisted  by  a  number  of  ministers,  who  became 
very  much  overwrought  when  the  crowds  poured 
forward  to  the  "anxious  seat."  These  helpers 
would  pound  the  benches  and  invoke  the  throne 
of  grace  with  great  tumult,  several  at  once  but  by 
no  means  in  unison.  Finney  refrained  from  criti- 
cism for  a  season,  fearing  that  he  might  disturb 
the  movement  of  penitents  and  lead  them  to 
"  grieve  the  Spirit."  But  the  confusion  became 
so  pronounced  that  he  finally  expostulated  with 
the  brethren  on  the  ground  that  the  people  should 
have  more  opportunity  to  think  than  was  possible 
in  such  an  environment,  that  they  needed  the  in: 
struction  of  one  voice  in  prayer,  and  that  calmness 
of  spirit  was  essential  to  intelligent  conversion. 

Without  pity  or  abatement  he  appealed  to  the 
selfish  emotion  of  fear.  He  held  that  whoever 
comforts  the  sinner  does  him  an  injury  "  as  cruel 
as  the  grave,  as  cruel  as  hell,"  for  it  is  calculated 
to  send  him  headlong  to  the  abyss  of  everlasting 
fire.  His  sermon  from  the  text,  "  The  wages  of 
sin  is  death,"  depicted  the  place  of  punishment  a^ 
a  bottomless  pit  upon  whose  walls  were  written 
in  gigantic  letters  the  words,  "  Wages,"  "  Wages," 
"  Wages,"  so  that  the  condemned  through  all 
eternity  might  be  reminded  of  the  sort  of  remu- 
neration which  comes  to  men  for  rejection  of 
o 


194      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

Christ.  He  once  spoke  in  a  schoolhouse  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Antwerp,  in  the  state  of  New 
York,  where,  up  to  that  time,  there  had  been  no 
preaching  of  any  sort,  from  the  words,  "  Up,  get 
you  out  of  this  place,  for  the  Lord  will  destroy  this 
city."  At  the  end  of  a  quarter  of  an  hour  the 
people  began  to  fall  from  their  seats  in  every  di- 
rection. "  If  I  had  had  a  sword  in  my  hand,"  says 
Finney,  "  I  could  not  have  cut  them  down  as  fast 
as  they  fell."  1  The  Rev.  Mr.  Nash,  his  helper  at 
Gouverneur,  believed  thoroughly  in  his  master's 
method  of  driving  the  sinner  "  from  all  his  refuges 
in  lies  and  misconceptions."  In  Finncy's  presence 
he  thus  addressed  the  "brazen-faced  and  stiff- 
necked  "  youth  of  the  community :  "  Now  mark 
me,  young  men,  God  will  break  your  necks  in  less 
than  one  week,  either  by  converting  some  of  you, 
or  by  sending  some  of  you  to  hell.  He  will  do  this 
as  certainly  as  the  Lord  is  my  God."  The  leader 
of  the  young  men  was  very  soon  overcome,  and 
at  Finney's  suggestion  exhorted  his  companions 
to  turn  to  the  Lord  while  there  was  yet  time. 
And  before  the  days  of  probation  promised  by  the 
prophet  Nash  had  expired,  nearly  all  had  taken 
their  stand  on  the  side  of  safety  and  reconciliation.2 
No  explanation  of  Finney's  career  would  be  at 
all  sufficient  which  did  not  take  into  .account  the 
almost  preternatural  influence  of  suggestion  which 
he  exercised  over  men's  minds.  His  power  to 
compel  individuals  and  audiences  to  his  will  and 
1  Finney,  "Autobiography,"  p.  103.  2  Ibid.,  p.  123. 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES       195 

purposes  was,  it  seems  to  me,  the  most  extraordi- 
nary that  appears  in  any  great  evangelist.  As  he 
preached  on  from  hamlet  to  hamlet  and  from  city 
to  city,  his  fame  in  this  particular  preceded  him, 
and  whole  sections  of  country  would  be  in  trepida- 
tion at  his  coming  and  congregations  would  im- 
mediately fall  under  his  sway.  Under  the  first 
sermon  he  preached  at  Rome  a  young  man 
swooned  away,  and  the  next  morning  the  whole 
town  came  together  at  the  hotel  to  an  inquiry 
meeting.  On  this  occasion  some  of  the  strongest 
men  had  to  be  taken  home  by  their  friends.  A 
physician  undertook  to  examine  the  pulse  of  one 
subject  who  had  fallen  in  great  agony,  when  he, 
too,  was  obliged  to  grasp  a  pillar  in  order  to  keep 
himself  in  an  upright  position.  Five  hundred  con- 
versions were  reported  in  a  short  time  in  Rome, 
and  Finney  testifies  that  the  work  was  with  such 
power  that  even  a  few  words  of  conversation 
would  make  the  stoutest  men  writhe  in  their 
seats.  It  came  to  pass  at  last  that  no  oratory,  no 
factitious  methods  of  creating  excitement,  were 
necessary  —  the  mere  presence  of  the  evangelist 
was  enough.1  This  unusual  influence  was  partly 
the  mere  outgoing  of  an  imperious  will.  For  ex- 
ample, in  a  series  of  meetings  at  Western,  Oneida 
County,  New  York,  a  young  woman  came  under 
conviction,  but  was  not  happily  converted  because 
of  trouble  at  home.  Her  parents  were  not  in 
sympathy  with  the  change  which  seemed  likely 

1  Finney,  "Autobiography,"  p.  161  f. 


196       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

to  occur  in  the  daughter.  Finney  went  at  once 
to  the  home,  called  in  the  father  from  the  field 
where  he  was  at  work,  told  both  the  father  and 
mother  they  must  have  family  prayers  on  the  in- 
stant. And  he  would  not  leave  the  house  until 
they  repented  and  established  the  family  altar.1 

But  it  was  something  more  than  imperious  voli- 
tion. There  was  an  amazingly  strange  psychic 
influence  which,  all  his  life,  he  exercised  over 
those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact.  At  Evans 
Mills  a  powerfully  built  and  very  evil  man  went  to 
one  of  the  meetings  with  a  loaded  pistol,  with  a 
plan  to  shoot  the  evangelist  while  he  was  preach- 
ing. But  instead  he  was  so  transfixed  by  the  per- 
sonality which  confronted  him  that  he  sank  down, 
shrieking  in  an  agony  of  terror.  Next  morning 
Mr.  Finney  met  this  man  on  a  street  of  the 
town.  "  Good  morning,"  he  said  to  the  would-be 
murderer,  "  how  do  you  feel  in  your  mind  this 
morning  ? "  The  man  related  to  Finney  his  ex- 
perience during  a  sleepless  night.  He  had  wrestled 
with  God  in  prayer,  but  with  no  sense  of  relief. 
He  had  even  lost  the  conviction  of  sin  which  was 
present  in  his  mind  the  evening  before,  and  had 
come  away  from  the  place  of  unsuccessful  com- 
munion with  the  Almighty.  " But''  said  he,  "  when 
I  saw  you,  my  heart  began  to  burn  and  grow  hot 
within  me,  and  instead  of  feeling  as  if  I  wanted 
to  avoid  you,  I  felt  so  drawn  that  I  came  across  the 
street  to  see  you."  2 

1  Finney,  "Autobiography,"  pp.  151,  152.      a  Ibid.,  pp.  69,  70. 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES       197 

At  New  York  Mills,  near  Utica,  there  occurred 
an  incident  which  also  lets  the  light  in  upon  the 
hidden  sources  of  purely  natural  power  which  this 
man  possessed.  After  having  preached  at  a  night 
meeting  with  powerful  effect,  he  went  next  morn- 
ing with  one  of  the  owners  to  inspect  a  large  tex- 
tile factory  which  was  in  operation  at  that  place. 
As  he  passed  through,  he  observed  a  great  deal  of 
agitation  among  those  who  were  busy  at  the  mules 
and  looms.  In  one  of  the  apartments  where  a 
great  number  of  young  women  were  weaving,  he 
saw  two  of  them  eyeing  him  and  speaking  very 
earnestly  to  each  other.  Finney's  own  circum- 
stantial account  of  what  followed  is  worth  preserv- 
ing as  a  bit  of  illustration  in  the  psychology  of 
hypnotism.  "  I  could  see  that  they  were  a  good 
deal  agitated,  although  they  both  laughed.  I  went 
slowly  towards  tJiem.  They  saw  me  coming  and 
were  evidently  much  excited.  One  of  them  was 
trying  to  mend  a  broken  thread,  and  I  observed 
that  her  hands  trembled  so  that  she  could  not  mend 
it.  I  approached  slowly,  looking  on  each  side  at 
the  machinery  as  I  passed,  but  observed  that  this 
girl  grew  more  and  more  agitated  and  could  not 
proceed  with  her  work.  When  I  came  within  eight 
or  ten  feet  of  her,  I  looked  solemnly  at  her.  She 
observed  it  and  was  quite  overcome  and  sunk  down 
and  burst  into  tears.  The  impression  ccutgJit  almost 
like  powder,  and  in  a  few  moments  nearly  all  in  t/ic 
room  were  in  tears."  The  owner  was  so  affected  by 
what  he  saw  that  the  machinery  was  stopped,  :\ 


198      PRIMITIVE   TRAITS   IN   RELIGIOUS   REVIVALS 

large  meeting  was  put  in  operation  at  once,  and 
nearly  every  girl  in  the  mill  in  that  hour  professed 
conversion.1 

In  the  Antwerp,  New  York,  revival  to  which 
reference  has  been  made,  there  was  a  very  striking 
case  of  instantaneous  recovery  from  insanity  under 
the  potent  spell  of  Finney's  personality.  A  woman 
who  was  the  victim  of  mental  aberration  and  de- 
spair over  her  religious  life  was  in  the  audience. 
When  Finney  began  to  preach,  she  struggled  to 
get  out,  but  was  restrained  by  friends  in  the  same 
pew  with  her.  The  evangelist,  who  knew  of  her 
condition,  sought  to  influence  her  in  the  course  of 
the  sermon  by  powerful  suggestions  as  to  boldness 
in  faith  and  hope  in  the  mercy  of  God.  At  first 
she  held  her  head  very  low,  but  as  Finney  pro- 
ceeded, she  began  gradually  to  raise  her  head  and 
look  out  from  within  her  long  black  bonnet.  As 
the  evangelist's  power  over  her  increased,  she  stood 
upright  and  gazed  into  his  face  with  intense 
earnestness.  Suddenly,  at  the  climax  of  the  dis- 
course, she  startled  the  congregation  with  a  loud 
shriek  and  cast  herself  from  her  seat,  trembling 
violently.  As  Finney  concluded,  she  gradually 
came  back  to  a  sitting  posture,  "  with  face  wonder- 
fully changed,  indicating  triumphant  joy  and 
peace."  As  an  application  of  mental  therapeutics 
it  was  manifestly  very  helpful,  but  there  may  well 
be  grave  doubt  if  in  this  instance,  or  in  other  sim- 
ilar ones  which  occurred  in  Finney's  experience, 

1  Finney,  "  Autobiography,"  p.  183. 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES        199 

there  was  a  trace  of  the  purely  supernatural  influ- 
ence to  which  the  evangelist  attributed  the  cure. 
At  their  best,  they  are  simply  more  refined  methods 
of  expelling  evil  spirits  than  the  exorcisms  of  John 
Wesley  among  the  English  miners,  of  Joseph 
Smith,  Jr.,  among  the  Mormons  or  of  the  Shaker 
enthusiasts  among  the  Indian  tribes. 

This  quality  of  a  very  high  hypnotic  potential 
cannot  fail  to  impress  the  student  of  Finney's  mind 
and  method  as  revealed  in  his  autobiography.  It 
is  gratifying,  however,  to  have  one's  own  view  con- 
firmed by  direct  and  positive  testimony  from  an  un- 
impeachable source.  I  was  in  conversation  not 
long  ago  with  a  cultivated  business  man  of  excel- 
lent scientific  training  and  habit,  who  resided  for  a 
short  time  in  Finney's  household,  who  was  inti- 
mately acquainted  with  the  evangelist  and  his 
family  and  thoroughly  familiar  with  his  unique 
personality  and  who  entirely  corroborates  the 
opinion  expressed  here  with  respect  to  his  remark- 
able power  in  suggestion.  He  related  to  me  the 
following  incident  as  he  heard  it  from  Finney's 
own  lips.  The  evangelist  was  conducting  a  series 
of  revival  meetings  in  the  old  Chatham  theatre  in 
New  York.  A  certain  woman  came  night  after 
night  and  occupied  a  seat  near  the  front,  evidently 
with  the  fully  formed  purpose  of  resisting  the 
religious  appeal.  Her  attitude  of  cool  insolence 
became  perfectly  clear  to  Finney,  and  he  skilfully 
planned  an  attack  upon  the  citadel  of  her  opposi- 
tion. He  prepared  a  sermon  especially  for  her,  in 


2OO       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

which  the  guilt  and  danger  of  the  sinner,  the 
reality  of  hell  as  a  place  of  everlasting  punishment 
for  the  wicked,  were  painted  in  colors  vivid  and 
terrible.  He  pictured  the  devil  as  a  huntsman  with 
a  long  bow,  threading  the  forest  paths  of  the  nether 
world,  seeking  the  lost,  not  for  succor  but  for  de- 
struction. At  the  point  of  highest  dramatic  in- 
terest, Finney  drew  the  bow  and  let  the  arrow 
figuratively  fly  straight  at  the  recalcitrant  woman, 
crying  out  as  he  did  so,  "  Thus  will  his  arrow 
smite  thee,  O  sinner,  except  thou  repent!"  The 
woman  fell  senseless  into  the  aisle.  I  do  not  wish 
to  convey  the  impression  that  Finney  was  guilty  of 
any  hypocrisy.  He  believed  implicitly  that  it  was 
the  power  of  God  working  through  his  own  spirit 
that  struck  the  woman  down  that  He  might  subdue 
her  to  Himself.  But  of  course  no  scientific  student 
of  the  human  mind  would  for  a  moment  admit  any 
such  assumption.  The  woman  was  probably  over- 
come by  a  force  as  natural  as  the  stroke  of  the 
lightning  or  the  blow  of  a  club.  The  gentleman 
just  mentioned  above  called  my  attention  also  to 
the  marvellous  eye  which  Finney  possessed.  By 
its  aid,  mob  after  mob  of  riotous  men  parted  and 
allowed  him  to  pass  through,  and  he  was  able  in  a 
few  moments  to  melt  them  into  weeping.  After  he 
became  president  of  Oberlin,  there  were  many 
students  in  that  institution  who  would  cross  the 
street  rather  than  meet  him  face  to  face.  It  was 
partly  because  of  the  unpleasant  questions  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  asking.  It  was  also  because  they 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES       2OI 

felt  that  there  was  something  veritably  uncanny 
about  this  extraordinary  man. 

But  just  as  no  explanation  of  Finney's  career 
would  be  sufficient  which  did  not  take  into  account 
this  almost  preternatural  power  of  suggestion,  so 
no  explanation  would  be  at  all  sufficient  which  did 
not  recognize  his  higher  ethical  and  spiritual  quali- 
ties, and  especially  the  possession  of  a  very  clear 
and  vigorous  intellect.  It  was  this  splendid  qual- 
ity, in  combination  with  others,  which  finally  came 
to  modify,  in  Finney's  career,  the  usual  law  of 
origin  in  impulsive  movements.  Indeed,  as  he 
preached  on,  the  time  came  when  merchants, 
judges,  lawyers,  physicians,  — educated  men  of  all 
the  professional  classes,  —  were  the  first  to  receive 
his  message.  In  1842  he  was  invited  to  Rochester 
by  a  petition  signed  by  practically  every  lawyer  in 
the  city.  There  was  already  a  religious  interest 
in  progress,  under  one  Jedediah  Burchard,  which 
drew  off  the  common  people,  and  Finney's  audi- 
ences were  composed  of  the  intellectual  elite  of  the 
community,  including  the  lawyers  who  were  the 
sponsors  of  the  movement.  As  Finney  spoke  on 
from  night  to  night,  the  interest  deepened,  and 
finally  he  was  requested  to  deliver  a  sermon  ex- 
pressly to  the  legal  profession.  At  the  conclusion 
of  his  address  a  judge  of  the  court  of  appeals 
walked  up  the  narrow  stairway  to  the  pulpit  and 
said,  "  Mr.  Finney,  pray  for  me  by  name,  and  I 
will  take  the  anxious  seat."  Immediately  the 
whole  body  of  lawyers  arose  in  the  centre  of  the 


2O2      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS   IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

house  and  crowded  into  the  aisles  toward  the  "  anx- 
ious seat,"  wherever  they  could  find  a  place  to 
kneel. 

In  the  winter  of  1855-1856  Finney  was  again  in 
Rochester  at  the  request  of  the  lawyers,  who  asked 
of  him  a  course  of  lectures  on  "  the  moral  govern- 
ment of  God."  On  this  latter  occasion,  also,  many 
of  the  natural  leaders  of  the  city's  population  were 
brought  into  the  membership  of  the  churches. 
The  seed  evidently  fell  here  on  good  ground,  for 
it  is  asserted  by  judicious  investigators  that  the 
very  unusual  religious  history  of  Rochester  was 
moulded  and  fashioned  in  those  early  years  by  the 
personality  of  Charles  G.  Finney.  Long  before 
his  life's  close,  he  became  in  many  parts  of  the 
United  States,  as  well  as  in  England,  the  most 
conspicuous  evangel  in  his  generation  of  the  im- 
portant beliefs  and  truths  which  have  given  Chris- 
tianity preeminence,  such  as  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  the  love  of  God  for  sinners,  and  the  glory  of 
a  blameless  life. 

And  now  we  are  getting  into  modern  days.  With 
Finney  the  reign  of  crude  irrational  fear  in  revival 
preaching  came  to  an  end.  The  violent  appeals 
to  terror  which  had  been  so  characteristic  of  the 
previous  century  were  losing  their  power  over 
men,  and  the  spirit  of  the  age  began  to  be  reflected 
in  Finney.  It  was  not  that  he  ceased  to  magnify 
the  guilt  of  the  sinner  and  the  awful  retribution 
due  to  sin.  He  never  forsook  this  line  of  appeal. 
But  it  was  rather  in  a  fresh  and  vigorous  aiming 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES        2O3 

at  the  conscience  and  the  will,  in  a  new  and  larger 
emphasis  upon  the  love  of  God,  that  Finney  shows 
his  kinship  with  the  modern  age. 

The  revival  of  1857,  so  extended  as  to  be  fairly 
national  in  its  proportions,  was  the  connecting  link 
between  the  old  days  and  the  new,  between  the 
former  and  the  latter  half  of  the  century  in  its 
religious  aspect.  Cradled  in  an  atmosphere  of 
financial  fear,  this  revival  speedily  threw  off  its 
swaddling  clothes  and  became  a  quiet,  deep  and 
sane  spiritual  movement  which  pervaded  and  in- 
vigorated the  higher  life  of  the  American  people. 
It  was  a  revival  characterized  not  by  preaching  but 
by  prayer,  by  an  intense  desire  on  the  part  of  a 
great  multitude  of  people  for  personal  communion 
with  Him  who  is  invisible  and  eternal.  The  influ- 
ence of  impassioned  hypnotic  harangue  and  of 
appeal  to  baser  instinctive  emotion  is  therefore  not 
so  clearly  traceable  as  in  the  earlier  time. 

In  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
there  is  one  name  that  stands  above  every  other  in 
religious  evangelism,  —  that  of  Dwight  L.  Moody. 
He  was  as  truly  a  peerless  organizing  genius  in 
the  religious  world  as  any  man  who  can  be  de- 
scribed in  such  terms  in  the  industrial  or  political 
world.  He  was  not  only  a  great  and  successful 
leader  of  popular  revival  movements  for  many 
years,  but  his  superier  constructive  and  adminis- 
trative ability  is  shown  in  the  various  educational 
enterprises  which  he  established  upon  secure 
foundations  —  the  Bible  school  at  Chicago,  the 


2O4      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

boys'  and  girls'  preparatory  institutions  at  Mount 
Hermon  and  Northfield,  and  the  summer  assem- 
blies for  college  men  and  women.     And  none  of 
them  are  so  much  schools  of  theology  as  of  practi- 
cal/education and  especially  of  practical  training 
in  /religion.      Moody  was  not  a  theologian.     His 
life  was  too  busy  for  the  study  of  philosophy,  and 
his  doctrinal  views  were  simply  taken  over,  truth 
and  error  together,  from  a  bygone  age.     But  theo- 
logical  necessity  never  manacled   hirn^    When  it 
.came  to  a  crisis,  theology  went,  by  the  board,  and 
/  religious  experience  and  common  sense  were  his 
/  guides.     He  would  have  subscribed  to  the  substi- 
tutional   theory    of    the    atonement,  "^that   Christ 
|     suffered  and  died  in  our  place  to  appease  God's 
wrath.      But  no  man  could   deal   this  monstrous 
doctrine  a  more  deadly  blow  than  he  when  he  said: 
"  I    used  to  think  of    God  as   a   stern   judge  on 
the  throne,  from  whose  wrath  Jesus  Christ   had 
saved  me.     It  seems  to  me  now  that  I  could  not 
have  a  falser  idea  of  God  than  that.     Since  I  have 
become  a  father,  I  have  made  this  discovery, ^bhat 
it  takes  more  love  and  self-sacrifice  for  the  father 
to  give  up  the  son  than  it  does  for  the  son  to  die." 
With   Moody,   religious   evangelism   is   emanci- 
pated from  the  horrid  spectres  of  irrational  fear, 
I  do  not  mean  that  he  was  blind  to  the  natural  law 
of  retribution.     As  powerfully  as  Finney  he  pene- 
trated to  the  consciences  of  men  and  made  them 
\  understand  and  feel  the  effect  of  sin  upon  char- 
\  acter,  both   here   and   hereafter.      There  was  no 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN   THE    UNITED    STATES        2O5 

thoughtless  optimism  about  his  preaching  of  divine 
justice.      But    the    old    emphasis  was   completely 
changed.     Moody's  favorite  theme  was  the  love  of      / 
the  heavenly  Father.     He  believed  that  the  lash     f 
of  terror  is  for  slaves  and  not  for  the  freeborn  of 
Almighty  God.     His  appeals  were  no  less  convinc- 
ing.     Of  this  any  man  might  satisfy  himself  by 
sitting  under  such  a  sermon  as  Moody  used  to  de- 
liver from  the  text,  "The  Son  of  Man  is  come  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  is  lost."     If  he  did  not 
always    appeal  to    the  very  highest    that  was  in 
his  hearers,  he  came  far  nearer  to  it  than  most 
revivalists  who  had  preceded  him.     If  the  balance 
of   reason    and    emotion  was  not  always   perfect, 
there  was   always   a   saving   measure  of   rational 
control,  and  men  rarely  went  away  the  worse  for 
having  listened.    The  peculiar  mental  and  nervous 
revival  phenomena  which  were  naturally  passing 
away  with  the  broadening  of  experience  and  envi- 
ronment, with  the  growth  of  intelligent  inhibition  I 
in   the  population,  ceased  almost  entirely  in   the  1 
Moody  movement  with  the  elimination  of  irrationalj 
fear  and  gross  emotional  excitement. 

I  shall  hope  not  to  offend  needlessly  many  good 
people  when  I  affirm  a  conviction  that  one  of  the 
secrets  of  Moody's  wonderful  success  in  the  field 
of  pure  revivalism  was  his  past-mastership  in  the 
art  of  hypnotism.  This  quality  differed  from 
Finney's  mainly  in  its  greater  refinement.  That 
he  was  perfectly  unconscious  of  this  remarkable 
gift,  I  have  no  doubt.  But  he  possessed  it.  In 


2O6       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

the  power  sharply  to  arrest  the  attention  of  an 
audience  by  unique  remarks  at  the  opening  of  the 
sermon,  in  the  skill  with  which  he  could  distract 
their  attention  from  all  other  concerns  and  bring 
about  a  condition  of  total  inhibition  of  all  other 
ideas  except  those  connected  with  immediate  salva- 
tion, in  the  ability  to  arouse  the  higher  emotions, 
in  the  discernment  of  the  psychological  moment 
when  he  should  call  for  an  immediate  execution  of 
his  suggestion  of  "  surrender  "  on  the  part  of  his 
hearers,  he  was  probably  without  a  peer  among  the 
religious  leaders  of  his  day  and  generation.  A 
friend  of  mine  who  attended  one  ot  his  inquiry 
meetings  in  the  early  days  solely  as  a  scientific 
observer,  and  whom  Moody  knew  to  be  such,  was 
excluded  on  the  ground  that  his  presence  would 
interfere  with  the  freedom  of  the  meeting.  And 
so  it  would  have,  as  any  student  of  the  phenomena 
of  "  crowd  "  hypnotism  knows. 

There  came  a  remarkable  change  in  the  direc- 

jtion  of  his  fine  energies  in  the  later  years  of 
Moody's  life.  Suddenly,  at  what  seemed  on  the 

'surface1  to  be  the  summit  of  his  popular  successes, 
he  turned  aside  and  devoted  himself,  not  entirely 
but  very  largely,  to  the  systematic  instruction, 
training  and  inspiration  of  those  already  Christians, 
that  he  might  make  of  them  personal  centres  for 
the  ingathering  of  fresh  converts ;  and  his  chief 

i  interest  seemed  to  centre  in  the  carefully  balanced 
training,  scientific  as  well  as  religious,  of  young 
men  and  women.  I  think  the  time  will  come  when 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES       2OJ 

it  will  be  recognized  that  Dwight  L.  Moody  never 
exerted  such  an  influence  for  the  higher  life  of  the 
nation  and  the  world  as  he  did  when  he  presided 
over  the  great  conventions  of  English,  Canadian  and 
American  college  men  at  Northfield  in  that  long  se- 
ries of  summer  conferences  beginning  in  the  eighties 
and  ending  only  with  the  close  of  his  eventful  life. 
Purely  psychic  impression  cut  very  little  figure 
there,  although  of  course  it  can  never  be  abso- 
lutely eliminated  when  speaker  and  psychological 
"crowd"  meet.  But  Moody  had  before  him  some 
of  the  best  blood  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  young 
men  trained  in  liberalism  and  the  critical  habit,  not 
easily  swept  from  their  moorings  by  arts  of  sug- 
gestion. They  smiled  now  and  then  at  his  syntax 
and  yawned  over  some  of  his  interpretations  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  but  they  believed  in  him  as 
they  did  in  their  own  mothers,  and  respected  him 
as  they  did  the  best  of  their  college  professors. 
His  rugged  sense,  his  spiritual  vision,  his  powerful 
proclamation  of  the  gospel  of  good  cheer  and  faith 
and  love,  his  catholicity  of  soul  that  led  him  to  add 
Henry  Drummond  and  George  Adam  Smith  to  his 
faculty  of  summer  instruction  in  spite  of  the  rum- 
ble of  ultra-orthodox  dissent  —  they  saw  in  all 
these  qualities  evidences  of  a  great  human  spirit 
that  could  adapt  itself  perfectly  to  experience  and 
environment.  And  they  were  not  wrong  in  their 
measurement  of  him.  From  the  days  of  the  civil 
war  until  his  life's  end  he  was  an  important  and 
inspiring  figure  in  the  social  and  religious  life  of 


2O8       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

the  nation.  And  it  is  simply  limitless  folly 
to  depreciate,  as  I  have  heard  some  persons 
attempt  to  do,  the  services  and  sacrifices  of  such 
a  man. 

I  do  not  know  what  it  was  which  led  Moody  to 
recognize  so  suddenly  the  limitations  of  a  religious 
method  so  closely  associated  with  revival  excite- 
ment and  the  revival  "crowd."  It  may  have  been 
the  immense  shrinkage  between  the  number  of 
professed  conversions  and  ensuing  church  member- 
ship. It  may  have  been  the  increasing  difficulty 
of  making  even  a  passing  impression  upon  the 
great  centres  of  population  which,  Moody  had  the 
discernment  to  see,  are  strategic  religiously  as  well 
as  industrially  and  politically.  The  time  came 
when  the  evangelist's  frequent  visits  to  New  York 
City  were  forgotten  almost  before  they  were  con- 
cluded, and  when,  according  to  the  statistics  of  his 
own  manager,  it  required  $7000  of  expenditure  to 
gather  thirty-three  people  into  the  churches  —  over 
$200  per  caput. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  revival  movements  of  magni- 
tude have  become  far  less  common  in  the  more 
highly  developed  sections  of  the  country.  The 
change  which  Moody  experienced  is  only  part  of  a 
process  over  which  many  devout  persons  grieve,  — 
the  progressive  decline  of  revival  in  large  areas  of 
the  American  population.  Along  with  the  growing 
practical  ineffectiveness  in  the  method  has  gone 
moral  degeneration  in  its  application.  Revival 
crowds  have  become  not  gospel  hardened  so  much 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES       2OQ 

as  method  hardened,  and  many  and  absurd  are  the 
devices  employed  to  soften  hard  hearts.  Instead 
of  the  severe  form  of  separation  from  the  world 
involved  in  pressing  forward  to  the  "  anxious  seat," 
evangelists  are  quite  content  if  penitents  will  rise 
where  they  are  sitting,  or,  failing  in  this,  if  they  will 
signify  a  change  of  life  purpose  by  the  uplifted 
hand !  I  have  even  heard  revivalists  request  their 
audiences  to  bow  their  heads  and  close  their  eyes, 
that  when  the  hand  was  lifted  no  one  should  see, 
as  one  of  them  phrased  it,  save  "  the  Lord  and 
myself."  Long  before  this  stage  was  reached, 
such  feeble  attempts  to  enmesh  the  unwary  had 
ceased  to  command  the  respect  of  thoughtful 
persons. 

And  along  with  moral  degeneration  of  method 
has  frequently  gone  spiritual  decay  in  revivalist 
personality.  Of  course  I  am  not  speaking  uni- 
versally, for  there  are  noble  and  notable  excep- 
tions, but  peripatetic  evangelists  as  a  class  have 
not  the  influence  to  which  they  ought  normally 
to  be  entitled,  in  the  more  intelligent  and  highly 
developed  communities.  The  mantle  of  power  has 
not  fallen  from  Elijah  upon  Elisha.  Rather  we 
have  had  too  many  instances  in  the  public  view  of 
formal,  official,  commercial,  hypnotic  manipulation 
of  revival  crowds.  It  would  obviously  be  indiscreet 
were  I  to  print  illustrative  personal  material,  which 
is,  however,  not  lacking.  In  some  cases  the  indi 
viduals  themselves  and  in  others  their  near  relatives 
are  yet  alive.  I  will  content  myself  with  one  or 


2IO      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

two  milder  citations  from  the  practices  of  men  very 
well  known  in  their  time  in  the  sphere  of  evange- 
lism. One  man  was  accustomed  to  close  a  revival 
with  a  personal  statement.  He  told  the  people 
that  if  they  were  grateful  for  his  services,  as  many 
had  expressed  themselves  as  being,  nothing  would 
please  him  more  than  to  receive  their  autographs. 
He  suggested  to  them  that  they  place  a  short  letter 
signed  with  their  own  names  in  an  envelope,  along 
with  the  amount  they  were  willing  to  contribute,  and 
deposit  the  same  in  the  collection  plates  at  the 
final  meeting.  Somebody  who  was  suspicious  of 
the  plan  followed  him  into  the  railway  car  when 
he  left  the  city  and  saw  him  open  the  envelopes 
and  tear  up  and  throw  out  the  letters  one  by  one 
without  reading.  But  he  retained  the  money.  He 
evidently  was  acquainted  with  the  commercial 
value  of  publicity  and  its  stimulation  to  larger 
giving.  One  revivalist  constantly  conveyed  the 
impression  that,  after  he  left  the  city,  there  would 
be  very  little  chance  for  the  conversion  of  sinners. 
"  If  you  are  to  go  on  and  lead  happy  Christian 
lives,"  he  would  say  at  the  conclusion  of  his  series 
of  meetings,  "you  must  buy  my  hymnal.  You 
must  continue  to  sing  the  hymns  you  sang  at  the 
time  you  were  converted.  My  young  man  will 
have  them  on  sale  at  the  door.  A  great  many  have 
applied  for  my  photograph,  wishing  the  shadow  to 
remain  when  the  substance  has  gone  elsewhere. 
The  young  gentleman  downstairs  will  supply 
these  also  at  a  reasonable  price."  Under  the 


TKAiNSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES        211 

ministrations  of  this  man  at  this  time  in  a  leading 
city  of  the  West,  two  or  three  thousand  people 
were  published  as  converted.  Only  five  hundred 
and  forty  of  these  were  taken  into  the  churches. 
The  statistics  and  the  judgment  of  one  of  the 
sanest  men  I  ever  knew,  who  was  thoroughly 
familiar  with  the  facts  and  in  entire  sympathy 
with  religious  movements,  even  though  strongly 
emotional,  combine  to  indicate  that  at  least  three- 
quarters  of  all  who  were  temporarily  influenced 
were  not  transformed  in  any  sense  as  to  their 
life  purposes.  And  instances  of  this  sort  can 
be  multiplied  many  times  in  the  annals  of  hypnotic 
revivalism.  Many  other  men,  whose  financial 
arrangements  have  been  entirely  unselfish  and 
above  reproach,  in  their  intense  desire  for  large 
numbers  of  so-called  converts,  in  their  strenuous 
efforts  to  stay  the  tide  of  decline,  have  consciously 
or  unconsciously  practised  so  perfectly  the  arts  of 
suggestion  that  their  revivals  have  come  to  be  little 
more  than  semi-hypnotic  seances  masquerading  in 
the  name  of  religion. 

Several  reasons  have  been  urged  for  the  decline 
of  this  particular  method  of  bringing  men  to  real 
repentance  and  newness  of  life.  Some  of  them 
have  a  bearing  upon  the  true  reason,  and  others 
are  more  or  less  important  factors  in  a  true  expla- 
nation. For  instance,  it  is  declared  with  some 
justice  that  we  are  under  the  dominion  of  a  too 
radical  evolutionary  theory  of  sin.  Evil  is  only 
good  in  the  making,  and  why  agonize  over  it  as 


212       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

the  fathers  did  ?  The  great  process  will  go  on. 
The  survival  of  the  fittest  means  ultimately  the 
survival  of  the  best.  The  generations  that  follow 
will  be  somewhat  better  than  the  generations  that 
are  gone,  and  therefore  why  stir  men's  souls  to 
white  heat  about  sin  and  righteousness  and  judg- 
ment to  come  ?  And  so  we  have  entered  the  regime 
of  an  ethical  and  spiritual  laissez  faire.  And  re- 
vivals have  declined  because  the  sense  of  sin  has 
been  weakened  in  the  population.  It  is  an  argu- 
ment which  is  worthy  of  attention,  for  whatever  its 
intellectual  faults,  the  old-time  revival  did  often 
make  a  wicked  man  think  of  his  sin,  and  agonize 
over  it,  too,  until  frequently  he  was  ready  to  throw 
all  his  strength  into  the  struggle  against  its  power. 
The  indictment  of  the  revival  at  this  point  is  that 
it  made  no  rational  discrimination  between  the 
utterly  vile,  the  far  less  sinful  and  little  children. 
All  alike  were  exposed  every  moment  to  the  wrath 
of  God.  An  awful  conviction  of  sin,  which  is 
either  a  matter  of  temperament  or  of  reaction  from 
a  riotous  career,  was  made  the  sine  qua  non  of  con- 
version for  every  soul.  It  was  a  psychological 
absurdity,  and  the  revulsion  against  it  may  have 
gone  too  far.  But,  however  that  may  be,  decline 
in  the  sense  of  sin  has  contributed  to  decline  in 
revival.  The  terrors  of  the  law  and  the  dread 
visitation  of  divine  anger  upon  the  children  of 
disobedience  were  powerful  sanctions.  And  they 
have  passed  away,  at  least  in  the  terms  of  belief  of 
the  old  regime.  This,  and  other  reasons  which 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES        213 

have  been  advanced,1  such  as  the  increase  of  ma- 
terial prosperity,  the  growth  of  the  critical  habit, 
the  widening  of  the  range  of  human  motive,  the 
passing  of  superstitionv  are  only  parts  of  one 
complete  explanation ;  namely  that  large  areas  of 
the  American  population  have  undergone  marked 
mental  evolution  under  the  stress  of  a  complex 
experience  and  a  rapidly  differentiating  social 
environment.  The  great  growth  in  knowledge 
through  public  education,  the  enormously  increased 
facilities  for  communication,  the  very  struggle  and 
competition  of  modern  life,  especially  in  the  great 
centres,  have  developed  in  the  average  man  an 
intelligence,  a  self-control,  a  power  of  rational  in- 
hibition, that  make  him  far  less  suggestible,  less 
nervously  unstable,  less  imitative,  less  liable  to  be 
swept  away  by  great  gusts  of  passion  or  emotion. 
He  is  in  many  respects  less  of  a  primitive  and 
more  of  a  highly  civilized  man,  and  over  him  the 
old  revival  method  has  correspondingly  lost  its 
power.  They  who  are  preaching  a  revival  of  old- 
time  revivalism  in  the  highly  developed  sections 
of  America  are  fighting  against  the  stars  in  their 
courses.  Recurring  tides  of  faith  there  may  be 
for  generations  to  come,  but  they  will  steadily 
change  in  character  from  those  of  the  old  regime. 
It  will  require  a  more  rational  method  to  win  men 
in  the  modern  age. 

There  is  a  national  decline  in  revival,  even  in 
church  going,  but  there  is  no  parallel  evidence  of  a 

1  Cf.  Coe,  "  The  Religion  of  a  Mature  Mind." 


214       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

national  decline  in  morals,  however  imperfect  our 
industrial  and  commercial  ethics  may  still  be.  The 
public  mind  of  America,  as  it  shows  itself  in  its 
choice  of  national  leaders,  in  its  criticism  of 
public  policies,  was  never  so  vitally  ethical  as  it  is 
to-day.  As  it  manifests  itself  in  its  attitude  tow- 
ards Cuba,  for  example,  towards  the  brown  peo- 
ple of  the  Philippines,  towards  Federal  corruption, 
towards  the  misgovernment  of  cities,  towards  all 
forms  of  philanthropy,  even  towards  the  rights  of 
negroes  and  Indians,  towards  the  affording  of  an 
equal  opportunity  to  all  men,  rich  and  poor,  it  is 
ethically  far  in  advance  of  the  national  mind  of  a 
generation  ago.  There  is  no  evidence  of  wide- 
spread decline  in  sympathy,  in  integrity,  in  quick 
conscience,  in  sense  of  social  responsibility.  There 
is  a  real  enthusiasm  for  pure  and  undefiled  religion 
among  vast  numbers  of  the  people.  Far  too  much 
of  it  is  unecclesiastical,  but  it  is  none  the  less  vital. 
The  institutional  methods  of  the  army,  the  navy, 
the  railroad  and  the  general  Christian  associations 
attract  and  hold  increasing  numbers  of  young 
men  who  are  reverent  and  loyal  to  the  Christian 
profession.  The  religious  instinct,  instead  of  being 
eliminated  in  the  process  of  mental  evolution,  has 
come  to  its  flower  within  the  last  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury in  those  training  schools  of  intellectual,  social 
and  political  leadership  —  the  colleges  of  America. 
The  strength  and  genuineness  of  this  recent  re- 
ligious movement  is  unquestioned  among  intelli- 
gent observers.  It  was  not  brought  about  by 


TRANSITION    PERIOD    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES         21$ 

the   old-time   methods.      They  would    have   been 
impotent  to  accomplish  it. 

The  decline  in  revival  is  only  partial  and 
confined  to  certain  rather  highly  developed  areas 
of  population.  We  have  still  within  our  borders 
many  heterogeneous  and  highly  emotional  ele- 
ments. In  the  tropical  dependencies,  among  the 
negroes  and  Indians,  in  isolated  and  backward 
communities,  in  those  parts  of  the  country  where 
environment  and  temperament  combine  to  foster 
emotionalism,  the  forms  of  impulsive  social  action, 
whether  religious,  judicial  or  political,  will  linger 
long.  Indeed  it  is  conceivable,  though  it  is  unlikely, 
that  our  whole  people  might  be  plunged  into  the 
moral  and  spiritual  condition  of  eighteenth-century 
England,  when  it  might  be  necessary,  in  one  sudden 
outburst  of  instinct  and  emotion,  to  brave  all  the 
evils  that  follow  in  the  train.  And  such  a  move- 
ment might  conceivably  advance  the  moral  and 
social  order.  But  if  we  remain  a  sanely  progres- 
sive people,  moving  steadily  and  rationally  for- 
ward in  the  path  of  social  evolution,  primitive 
religious  habits  will  be  sloughed  off,  and  popular 
religious  movements  will  assume  new  forms  in 
harmony  with  modern  development  and  enlight- 
enment. 


CHAPTER  XI 

A   NATURAL    EXPLANATION    OF    CERTAIN   REVIVAL 

PHENOMENA 

IT  will  not  be  necessary  to  rehearse  in  detail  cer- 
tain characteristic  phenomena  which  have  appeared 
again  and  again  in  our  studies  of  the  revivals  of  a 
marked  type  in  this  country  and  Great  Britain. 
The  violent  spasmodic  action,  the  contortions  of 
the  body,  the  shouting,  the  trembling,  the  hypnotic 
rigidity  and,  at  the  other  extreme,  the  sinking  of 
muscular  energy,  the  trance  and  the  vision  —  with 
all  these  we  have  become  sufficiently  familiar. 
Everywhere  we  have  come  upon  evidence  of  a 
/"'high  degree  of  nervous  instability  and  suggesti- 
bility, of  a  plastic  and  susceptible  mental  and  ner- 
vous organization.  Oftentimes  it  has  been  clear 
that  we  have  been  dealing  with  a  population  which, 
without  improper  stretching  of  the  term,  might  be 
classed  as  primitive  in  experience  and  environment. 
Sometimes,  also,  it  has  been  as  clear  that  a  popu- 
lation far  advanced  in  civilization  has  been,  under 
certain  circumstances,  temporarily  reduced  to  a 
primitive  mental  and  nervous  condition  by  the  ap- 
plication of  revival  methods,  by  the  influence  of 
the  revival  "  crowd."  But  these  strange  effects  are 
216 


EXPLANATION    OF    REVIVAL   PHENOMENA      2 1/ 

not  peculiar  to  the  religious  revivals  of  America, 
of  England  or  even  of  Christendom.  They  were 
phenomena  of  the  social  and  religious  epidemics 
of  western  Europe  in  the  middle  ages,  where  the 
perfectly  enormous  amount  of  mental  and  nervous 
instability  in  evidence  was  due  not  only  to  special 
conditions,  such  as  the  massing  of  women  in  con- 
vents, but  also  to  barbaric  inheritance.  They 
might  have  been  observed  in  the  frenzy  worship 
of  the  followers  of  ancient  Bacchus,  and  they 
accompany  the  evolutions  and  howlings  of  the 
modern  Mohammedan  dervishes.  Two  factors  are 
essential  to  their  appearance  ip  gtrpngt-h  —  a  spa^ 
son  of  high  excitement_anr[  thp  gnth^rinr  to^ftthpr 

ofthe    population    in psychological    "crowds." 

They  have  been  most  common  in  times  of  great 
religious  lervor  simply  because  There  are  no  theTwes 
which  aftopuiation  deems  so  v^al  to  present  and 
eternal  happiness  as  religious  themes;  there  is  noth- 
ing which  has  shown  itself  in  history  which  is  ca- 
pable of  creating  such  powerful  emotion  as  intense 
and  prolonged_jneditation  upon  men's  relation  to 
God  and  a  world  and  a  judgment  to  come.  These 
phenomena  usually  affect  not  the  intelligent  and 
the  self-controlled,  but  the  undeveloped,  the  unen- 
lightened, those  who  are  easily  swept  away  by 
imagination  and  emotion  and  are  not  subject  to 
the  higher  rational  processes,  those  in  whom  prim- 
itive mental  and  nervous  instability  yet  linger. 
And  everywhere  they  are  propagated  by  suggestion 
and  imitation. 


2l8       PRIMITIVE   TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

For  long  ages  only  a  supernatural  interpretation 
of  these  effects  was  attempted.  In  our  own  coun- 
try this  primitive  tendency  to  ascribe  miraculous 
validity  to  obscure  bodily  and  mental  phenomena 
first  received  a  real  check  on  its  mental  side  from 
no  less  a  spiritual  prophet  than  Jonathan  Edwards. 
While  yet  inconsistently  attributing  the  "bodily 
effects  "  to  the  actual  presence  and  power  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  he  came  to  look  upon  impulses  and 
impressions,  upon  prophesyings  and  speakings  with 
tongues,  upon  special  visions  and  revelations,  as 
childish  things  which  would  cease  as  Christianity 
attained  its  majority.  "  The  glory  of  the  approach- 
ing happy  state  of  the  church  does  not  at  all  re- 
quire these  extraordinary  gifts.  As  that  state  of 
the  church  will  be  the  nearest  of  any  to  its  per- 
fect state  in  heaven,  so  I  believe  it  will  be  like  it 
in  this,  that  all  extraordinary  gifts  shall  have  van- 
ished away.  .  .  .  For  my  part,  I  had  rather  enjoy 
the  sweet  influences  of  the  Spirit,  drawing  forth  the 
holy  exercises  of  faith,  divine  love,  sweet  compla- 
cence and  humble  joy  in  God  one-quarter  of  an 
hour,  than  to  have  prophetical  visions  and  revela- 
tions the  whole  year."  l 

But  even  Edwards  looked  upon  these  phenomena 
as  miraculous  gifts  for  an  early  stage  of  spiritual 
development.  And  it  is  only  in  our  own  time  that 
this  form  of  supernatural  explanation  has  largely 
ceased  in  popular  religious  thought.  Within  the 

1  "  Distinguishing  Marks,"  etc.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  556,  558;  quoted  in 
Allen,  "Jonathan  Edwards,"  p.  173. 


EXPLANATION    OF    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA       219 

memory  of  men  now  living,  some  of  these  phenom- 
ena have  been  widely  regarded  as  climacteric  at- 
testations of  the  divine  spirit  to  the  work  of  grace. 
And  there  are  parts  of  America  to-day  where  the 
religious  section  of  the  population  believes  no 
other  interpretation. 

Speaking  historically,  this  supernatural  theory 
has  assumed  two  forms.  Sometimes  God  has 
been  made  directly  responsible  for  these  phenom- 
ena, sometimes  the  devil.  Such  peculiarly  instinc- 
tive and  animal  reflexes  could  never  have  been 
regarded  as  of  deep  spiritual  import  by  any  moder- 
ately intelligent  population  except  for  that  strange 
tendency  of  the  uncritical  mind  to  look  upon  that 
as  most  divine  which  appears  to  be  farthest  re- 
moved from  law  and  order.  The  deeply  myste- 
rious, the  abnormal,  yea,  the  irrational  —  this  is 
miraculous,  this  is  supernatural.  God  is  in  the 
midst  of  it,  while  that  which  has  been  reduced  to 
the  natural  process  is  empty  of  and  needeth  not 
His  presence !  When  the  manifestations  have 
been  too  dreadful  for  belief  that  they  were  directly 
caused  by  a  benevolent  and  intelligent  divinity, 
they  have  been  ascribed  to  demon  possession  or  to 
some  malign  supernatural  influence.  This  form  of 
the  theological  explanation,  practically  universal 
among  primitive  people  and  frequently  employed 
in  the  religious  literature  of  all  races,  reached  its 
highest  logical  development  in  the  Miltonic  con- 
ception of  a  personal  devil  who  has  seemed  at  times 
to  share  with  Almighty  God  the  rulership  of  men. 


22O      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

It  was  of  course  this  theory  which  was  at  the  basis 
of  the  witchcraft  delusion,  and  it  has  been  em- 
ployed times  without  number  to  explain  some  of 
the  evils  of  uncontrolled  revivalism.  The  convic- 
tion that  there  exists  an  exceedingly  powerful 
personal  devil  is  still  strong  with  thousands  of 
religious  and  irreligious  people  alike  in  America 
and  in  other  lands.  It  is  only  the  more  thoughtful 
who  have  emancipated  themselves  from  the  tradi- 
tional belief.  Very  slowly  the  more  advanced 
populations  are  coming  to  realize  that  this  is  God's 
world  in  process  of  evolution  from  the  animal  to 
the  spiritual,  that  it  is  not  the  devil's  at  all,  and 
that  there  is  not  a  shred  of  rational  evidence  of 
a  purely  malign  supernatural  being  in  the  uni- 
verse. 

The  miraculous  explanation  has  been  succeeded 
by  the  pathological,  that  the  phenomena  can  be 
accounted  for  only  by  disease  and  serious  func- 
tional derangement  of  the  nervous  system.  Cer- 
tain sporadic  cases  can  undoubtedly  be  so  explained, 
but  not,  I  think,  the  extraordinary  and  widespread 
exhibitions  of  mental  and  nervous  instability  which 
we  have  studied  in  the  preceding  pages,  affecting 
at  times  a  large  fraction  of  the  whole  community. 
I  venture  to  suggest  that  the  general  explanation 
of  these  facts  will  be  found  to  be  grounded  in 
normal  individual  and  social  psychology  and  not  in 
pathology. 

Darwin  long  ago  called  our  attention  to  the  very 
natural  forms  of  expression  of  emotion  in  man  and 


EXPLANATION    OF    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA      221 

animals.1  When  the  cerebro-spinal  system  is  highly 
excited,  nervous  energy  is  generated,  or  at  least 
liberated  in  excess,  and  frequently  expends  itself,  j 
independently  of  the  will,  in  channels  of  action  / 
which  are  most  habitual  to  the  subject;  if  not/ 
always  plainly  in  habitual  muscular  movements,! 
then  in  other  channels  of  expenditure  which  are? 
natural  to  the  subject  because  of  the  peculiar  con* 
stitution  of  his  nervous  system.  The  negro  revival 
trance^  developed  under  religious  excitement,  may 
be  as  truly  a  form  of  involuntary  expenditure  of 
nervous  energy  as  the  Kentucky  "  jerks."  Usually 
the  habitual  muscular  routes  are  followed.  The 
religious  shouter  vents  the  liberated  energy  through 
his  respiratory  apparatus.  The  highly  motor  Ken- 
tuckian  of  1800  found  relief  in  the  use  of  the 
voice,  in  distortions  of  the  face  and  by  bringing 
into  vigorous  action  the  upper  and  lower  extremi- 
ties. If  the  customary  outlet  is  insufficient,  then 
there  will  be  an  overflow  into  the  less  habitual 
channels.2 

There  are  still  other  interesting  suggestions  of 
Darwin  in  the  work  to  which  I  have  referred 
which  have,  I  believe,  an  important  bearing  on 
what  seems  to  me  to  be  the  natural  explanation  of 
these  peculiar  revival  phenomena.  For  example, 
he  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  exciting  emotions 
in  animals  seem  to  require  for  their  relief  or 

1  Cf.  "  The  Expression  of  the  Emotions  in  Man  and  Animals," 
Darwin,  p.  66  f. 

2  Cf.  Spencer,  quoted  by  Darwin,  op,  cit.,  p.  71. 


222       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

gratification  some  energetic  movement.  The  an- 
ticipation of  delights  leads  in  children  to  loud 
laughter,  jumping,  the  clapping  of  hands  and 
other  purposeless  muscular  activity.  But  of  all 
emotions  in  men  and  animals,  fear  is  the  most 
exciting,  as  well  as  the  most  depressing.  At  first 
it  leads  to  violent  motor  reflexes,  but  at  last  to  the 
sinking  of  energy,  utter  prostration,  fainting  and 
convulsions.  Some  reflexes  are  not  at  all  service- 
able, as  when  strong  excitement  interferes  with  the 
steady  flow  of  nerve  force  to  the  muscles  and 
violent  trembling  ensues.  Other  reflexes  were 
originally  highly  serviceable,  having  been  born  of 
the  long  and  terrible  period  of  the  pain  economy 
and  struggle  for  life  to  which  animals  and  the  early 
races  of  men  have  been  subject.  Some  forms  of 
muscular  contortion  have  proved  a  means  of  escape 
from  the  cause  of  the  suffering,  or  at  least  have 
furnished  relief  in  pain,  and  so  have  become  habit- 
ual. Sometimes  the  relief  takes  the  form  of  tem- 
porary paralysis,  as  when  the  animal  becomes 
motionless  as  death  in  the  presence  of  great  dan- 
ger ;  sometimes,  in  man,  the  relief  comes  through 
the  decline  of  rational  consciousness  and  the 
uprush  of  a  sort  of  subconsciousness,  as  when  in 
the  ecstasy  of  religious  fervor  the  martyr  at  the 
stake  becomes  insensible  to  torture. 

This  tendency  to  serviceable  reflex  action  is  in 
primitive  man  no  doubt  partly  the  result  of  an 
animal  inheritance,  developed  and  intensified  by 
habitual  association  in  his  own  experience.  Not 


EXPLANATION    OF    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA       22$ 

to  speak  of  other  emotions,  then,  fear  and  joy  in 
the  human  race  are  naturally  accompanied  by 
animal  and  primitive  reflexes,  the  cruder  forms  of 
which  disappear  only  with  the  growth  of  the  power 
of  inhibition  in  the  midst  of  a  wider  and  less  pain- 
ful experience  and  environment. 

These  facts  have  application,  I  think,  to  the 
social  psychology  of  the  revival.  The  motor  and 
sensory  reflexes  are  always  correlated  with  strong 
imagination  and  emotion.  Imagination  and  emo- 
tion, themselves  ever  in  association,  are  greatly 
strengthened  by  intensity  of  belief  or  expectation. 
Now  there  is  no  form  of  gathering  among  men 
where  the  elements  of  belief,  of  imagination,  of 
emotion,  are  more  powerfully  combined  than  in 
the  revival  "  crowd."  Just  as  there  are  no  beliefs 
which  are  so  momentous  as  religious  beliefs,  so 
there  is  no  form  of  imagination  and  emotion  so 
intense  as  the  religious.  These  factors  have  been 
present  in  power  in  every  typical  revival  gathering. 
Their  influence  has  oftentimes  been  greatly  in- 
creased by  the  skilful  appeals  of  preacher  and 
exhorter.  Latent  imagination  and  emotion,  multi- 
plied by  the  direct  suggestion  of  the  speaker  and 
the  reciprocal  suggestion  of  the  audience,  have 
produced  such  excitation  of  the  cerebro-spinal 
system  that  the  freed  nervous  energy  has  expended 
itself  in  motor  and  sensory  automatisms  of  vary- 
ing kinds  and  degrees. 

To  make  the  matter  more  concrete,  let  us  reflect 
that  the  emotions  most  frequently  excited  in  the 


224      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

revival  are  fear  and  joy.  The  appeal  to  joy  is  in 
anticipation  of  the  glory  and  the  blessedness  that 
shall  follow  a  life  of  righteousness.  We  have 
seen  that  the  tendency  of  unrestrained  joy  is  to 
arouse  in  animals  and  primitive  man  the  whole 
muscular  system,  producing  involuntary  dancing, 
leaping  or  automatic  laughter.  The  appeal  to 
fear  in  the  revivals  of  the  past  has  been  based 
upon  two  forms  of  this  dread  emotion.  There 
has  been  the  fear  of  retribution  for  sin,  produced 
by  the  preacher  in  vivid  imaginative  pictures  of  a 
hell  of  endless  torments  and  of  endless  remorse. 
There  is  also  in  the  average  man  a  great  slumber- 
ing mass  of  fear  that  he  cannot  shake  off,  made 
up  of  instincts  and  feelings  inherited  from  a  long 
human  and  animal  past.  This  can  be  awakened  in 
ways  that  every  psychologist  understands  theo- 
retically and  that  the  skilful  revivalist  employs 
practically.  Under  conditions  which  will  bring 
men  together,  sharply  arrest  their  attention,  fix 
their  minds  upon  issues  of  the  gravest  import  for 
time  and  for  eternity  and  distinctly  discourage  all 
critical  thought,  -/—  under  these  conditions  men  will 
be  governed  chiefly  by  their  feelings,  and  their  ac- 
tion, in  general,  will  be  reflex  and  impulsive  rather 
than  deliberative.  That  is,  for  the  time  being,  their 
mental  make-up  will  revert  to  the  primitive  type. 
With  few  exceptions,  each  individual's  power  of  in- 
hibition will  be  swallowed  up  in  the  maelstrom,  and 
every  wave  of  emotion,  whether  of  fear  or  of  joy, 
will  sweep  the  major  portion  of  the  audience  with  it. 


EXPLANATION    OF    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA       225 

Now  I  hold  that  the  crowd  which  becomes 
thoroughly  primitive  in  feeling  has  a  strong  ten- 
dency also  to  become  primitive  in  reflexes.  No 
one  can  appreciate  in  our  day,  unless  he  has 
made  a  careful  investigation  of  the  records,  what 
a  frightful  agonizing  because  of  sin  the  old- 
time  revival  developed  in  its  votaries.  Fear  was 
the  central  motive  in  the  religious  psychology  of 
the  period,  and  to  fear  the  appeal  was  made.  The 
wrath  of  God,  the  terrors  of  the  law,  the  doom  of 
the  non-elect  or  of  the  impenitent,  the  everlasting 
torment  of  the  lost, — these  beliefs,  held  as  self- 
evident,  were  pressed  home  upon  revival  crowds 
with  consummate  skill  and  power.  And  under 
the  weight  of  spiritual  agony  and  contortion,  in  the 
temporary  absence  of  rational  inhibition,  the 
ancient  primitive  reflexes  asserted  themselves  to 
relieve  the  strain  of  dread  and  danger.  It  is  easy 
to  see  now  why  the  more  revolting  phenomena 
ceased,  as  they  largely  did  in  the  more  advanced 
sections  of  the  country,  with  the  decline  of  the 
emphasis  upon  fear  and  the  rise  of  the  emphasis 
upon  the  higher  emotions. 

Of  course  the  phenomena  always  affect  first  the 
most  susceptible  in  the  assembly  and  then  spread 
by  sympathetic  contagion  and  imitation.  When 
these  latter  forces  are  operating  with  intensity, 
sometimes  exceedingly  self-controlled  persons  will 
be  drawn  into  the  current.  A  friend  of  mine,  who 
at  least  in  his  later  years  has  as  perfect  mastery  of 
himself  as  any  man  I  know,  at  the  age  of  twenty 


226      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

happened  one  day  to  be  standing  as  a  spectator 
on  the  fringe  of  a  southern  camp-meeting  of  two 
thousand  people.  He  had  had  no  religious  experi- 
ence and  at  that  time  did  not  wish  any.  The  crowd 
was  laboring  under  great  religious  excitement,  and 
reflex  phenomena  were  abundantly  in  evidence. 
Suddenly  my  friend  found  himself  with  his  hands 
pressed  against  his  lungs,  shouting,  "  Hallelujah  !  " 
at  the  top  of  his  voice.  He  had  been  unconsciously 
drawn  into  the  maelstrom. 

Dr.  Leonard  Woolsey  Bacon,  in  his  history  of 
American  Christianity,1  relates  a  similar  instance 
which  came  under  the  personal  observation  of  an 
able  and  prominent  clergyman  of  the  Methodist 
denomination,  Dr.  John  P.  Durbin.  The  latter 
was  about  to  preach  at  a  southern  camp-meeting 
when  he  observed  a  young  giant  of  a  backwoodsman 
on  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd,  evidently  with  full  in- 
tention of  disturbing  the  meeting.  In  a  little  time 
the  young  man  came  under  the  influence  of  the 
environment,  and  evidently,  with  a  strong  deter- 
mination not  to  yield,  grasped  with  both  hands  a 
hickory  sapling  close  by,  "  but  was  whirled  round 
and  round  until  the  bark  of  the  sapling  peeled  off  in 
his  grasp."  The  subject  was  not  at  all  under  the 
sway  of  religious  sentiment. 

""It  therefore  follows  that  spiritual  conviction  and 
peculiar  physical  and  mental  manifestation  are  by 
no  means  necessarily  correlated.  Dr.  Archibald 
Alexander  also  had  an  interesting  experience  in 

1  p.  240,  note. 


EXPLANATION    OF    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA       22/ 

the  south  which  thoroughly  illustrates  my  propo- 
sition. The  sermon  was  a  very  impressive  one,  and 
the  people  were  generally  attentive,  except  a  few 
old  tobacco  planters  in  the  rear  of  the  room,  who 
paid  no  attention  to  the  discourse,  but  talked  to- 
gether in  a  low  tone  upon  subjects  connected  with 
their  industry.  Suddenly  the  preacher  became 
very  vehement  and  boisterous,  and  immediately 
there  was  a  response  in  the  centre  of  the  house  in- 
dicating strong  emotion.  A  female  voice  broke 
forth  in  a  piercing  cry.  Then  the  people  began  to 
rise,  one  after  another,  in  different  parts  of  the 
room,  under  extreme  agitation.  The  women  threw 
off  their  bonnets  and  shouted,  as  did  some  of  the 
men,  in  a  most  uncontrolled  fashion.  The  sympa- 
thetic wave  spread  from  the  centre  to  the  circum- 
ference, and  the  whole  audience  was  swayed  like  a 
forest  in  a  mighty  wind.  Dr.  Alexander  himself 
is  on  record  as  having  found  it  necessary  to  put 
forth  a  conscious  effort  of  resistance  in  order  to 
hold  himself  steady  in  the  violence  of  the  storm, 
and  he  testifies  that  the  old  tobacco  planters  in  the 
rear,  who  had  not  listened  to  one  word  of  the 
sermon,  displayed  tremulous  emotion  in  every 
muscle  of  their  brawny  faces,  while  the  tears 
coursed  down  their  wrinkled  cheeks.  A  quieting 
song  subdued  them  all  in  a  moment. 

The  influence  of  partial  hypnotization  is  always 
at  work  in  the  crowd  which  is  laboring  under  the 
pressure  of  great  religious  excitement.  The  ele- 
ment of  full  consciousness  is  present,  but  is  feeble. 


228       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

Sometimes  the  power  of  subtle  suggestion  ema- 
nates from  the  skilful  preacher.  Sometimes  there 
is  self-hypnotization  as  the  result  of  prolonged 
concentration  of  mind  upon  a  single  object  or  a 
single  subject.  Whatever  be  the  form  of  it,  it 
will  never  fail  to  do  its  work  upon  those  impres- 
sionable persons  in  every  audience  whose  powers 
of  reason  and  volition  are  not  normally  regnant. 
Under  such  general  conditions  any  hypnotist,  reli- 
gious or  other,  can  produce  prostrations  or  trances 
at  will.1 

Hypnotization  is  a  most  direct  form  of  the  re- 
moval of  rational  inhibition,  and  then  under  the 
influence  of  simple  suggestion  in  the  laboratory, 
or  of  the  appeal  to  fear  or  other  strong  emotion  in 
the  public  religious  audience,  the  primitive  reflexes 
reappear.  And  when  once  they  have  manifested 
themselves  in  the  most  susceptible,  the  terrible 
apprehension  that  this  mysterious  agency  may 
gain  possession  of  their  own  spirits  acts  as  a  power- 
ful suggestion  to  that  end  upon  others  throughout 
the  audience  who  are  less  impressionable,  but  who 
ate  nevertheless  suddenly  overcome. 

This  is  the  explanation  of  the  catalepsies  that 
befell  many  under  John  Wesley's  sermons  and  that 
have  been  widely  attributed  even  in  our  own  day  to 
"the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  For  example, 
it  furnishes  an  entirely  adequate  explanation  of 
the  famous  and  widely  quoted  Quaker  case.  The 
critical  Friend  was  much  offended  at  what  he  re- 

1  Cf.  the  practice  of  Charcot  and  Pierre  Janet. 


EXPLANATIOM    OF    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA      22Q 

garded  as  simulated  manifestations  in  the  Baldwin 
street  audiences  at  Bristol.  He  was  knitting  his 
brows  and  biting  his  lips  in  displeasure  when  he, 
too,  was  struck  down  in  a  moment  as  by  a  bolt 
from  out  the  blue.  After  prayer  by  Mr.  Wesley, 
the  Quaker  lifted  up  his  head  and  cried  aloud, 
"  Now  I  know  that  thou  art  a  prophet  of  the 
Lord."  l 

The  same  method  is  followed  among  the  Puget 
Sound  Indians.  The  chief  feature  in  their  con- 
verts' meetings  is  the  ringing  of  bells  and  the 
making  of  other  tremendous  noises  until  they  in- 
duce cataleptic  states  and  sometimes  chronic  con- 
vulsions in  numerous  individuals.  If  they  can  get 
a  sceptic  or  scoffer  into  the  meeting,  they  gather 
round  him  and  bombard  him  with  these  phenomena 
until  finally  he  falls  and  is  thereafter  reckoned 
among  the  "converts." 

Although  the  subject  is  an  obscure  one  and  dif- 
ficult, I  think  particular  application  of  this  natural 
theory  of  explanation  may  be  made  at  least  to  cer- 
tain of  the  phenomena  not  heretofore  specifically 
mentioned ;  for  example,  to  revival  hallucinations 
and  visions.  Until  recent  years,  in  the  judgment 
of  a  very  competent  observer,2  a  large  proportion, 
perhaps  even  a  majority,  of  the  converts  in  revivals 
habitually  experienced  temporary  hallucinations 
of  all  sorts,  coherent  and  incoherent,  grotesque 

1  Wesley's  "Journal,"  Vol.  I,  p.  130. 

2  Dr.   James  M.   Buckley,  "  Faith  Healing  and   Kindred  Phe- 
nomena," p.  171. 


230       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

and  refined.  They  are  not  now  common  within  the 
areas  of  high  mental  development  They  have 
disappeared  under  the  solvent  of  increasing  knowl- 
edge, a  widened  experience,  a  more  complex  envi- 
ronment. But  attention  has  already  been  called 
to  the  practical  universality  of  such  phenomena  in 
the  primitive  revival  worship  of  the  negroes  and 
Indians  in  this  country  at  the  present  time.  And 
they  are  very  common  among  the  peasantry  of  all 
nations.  In  all  these  cases  they  are  evidently  the 
product  of  a  plastic  and  undeveloped  mental  and 
nervous  organization.  They  appear  ordinarily  only 
under  mental  stress.  They  are  not  necessarily 
evidences  of  pathological  weakness  at  all.  There 
are  hallucinations  and  visions  of  the  sane  as  well 
as  hallucinations  and  visions  of  the  insane.  The 
second  only  are  in  the  strict  sense  pathological  and 
abnormal.  This  distinction  was  long  ago  made  by 
no  less  eminent  an  expert  in  mental  disease  than 
Griesinger,1  who  not  only  cited  many  cases  among 
highly  distinguished  and  intellectual  persons,  — 
Goethe,  Walter  Scott,  Pascal  and  others,  —  but 
expressed  the  judgment  formed  from  wide  obser- 
vation that  they  occur  not  rarely  but  frequently 
among  men  with  mental  development  below  the 
average.  No  statistical  investigation  of  this  mat- 
ter has  ever  been  conducted  on  a  sufficiently  broad 
inductive  basis,  but  the  negro  and  Indian  popula- 
tions in  America  would  unquestionably  afford  a 
most  fruitful  field  for  such  an  inquiry. 
1  Buckley,  op.  cit.,  p.  169. 


EXPLANATION    OF    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA       23 1 

A.  Brierre  de  Boismont l  has  gone  a  step  farther 
and  distinguished  two  varieties  of  hallucinations 
of  the  sane,  "  those  which  are  corrected  by  the 
understanding,  and  those  which  on  account  of 
superstition,  sluggishness  of  thought,  love  of  the 
marvellous,  inability  to  interpret  them  correctly,  or 
because  the  emotions  which  they  excite  make  calm 
consideration  impossible,  are  not  corrected."  That 
is,  that  part  of  the  population  in  which  rational  in- 
hibition has  developed  overcome  their  hallucina- 
tions, distrust  them,  put  them  under  foot,  finally 
banish  them  altogether,  while  that  large  section 
which  is  primitive,  which  is  mentally  undeveloped, 
continues  to  harbor  the  delusions,  and  if  they  be 
of  a  religious  character,  regards  them  as  super- 
natural evidences  of  the  Spirit's  presence  or  as  the 
divine  credentials  of  conversion.  In  the  South, 
among  the  negroes,  these  illusory  trains  of  images, 
these  purely  subjective  visions,  are  even  quoted  in 
proof  of  doctrine  or  in  refutation  of  an  adversary, 
as  indeed  they  were  throughout  the  middle  ages 
in  the  church  of  western  Europe. 

But  it  is  clear  that  an  hallucination  is  an  hallu- 
cination, and  a  vision  is  a  vision,  whether  it  occur 
under  great  religious  emotion  or  entirely  apart 
from  it.  If  it  be  widespread,  it  is  an  evidence  of 
a  highly  plastic  mental  and  nervous  organization 
and  a  tendency  to  primitive  reflexes  in  a  popula- 
tion. And  under  the  stress  of  great  excitement, 
especially  in  a  religious  gathering  which  has  been 

1  Buckley,  op,  cit.,  p.  1 70. 


232       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

brought  under  the  dominion  of  mental  agony  and 
fear,  such  phenomena  may  be  expected  to  occur 
with  naturalness  and  frequency.  They  will  appear 
also  in  persons  who  are  by  no  means  good  sub- 
jects, under  the  impulse  of  profound  meditation 
and  concentration  and  especially  of  strong  desire 
and  expectation.1  Why  the  outflow  of  liberated 
energy  should  take  the  sensory  rather  than  the 
motor  channel  is  a  secret  wrapped  up  with  pecul- 
iar nerve-cell  connections  and  the  special  consti- 
tution of  the  nervous  system  in  the  individual. 

The  complete  lapsing  of  self-consciousness  in 
the  religious  trance  is  a  similar  product,  except 
that  hypnotization  plays  a  characteristic  part.  In- 
deed, a  strongly  volitional  individual  can  produce 
the  dissociation  between  the  conscious  and  the  un- 
conscious self  not  only  in  others  but  in  his  own 
personality,  entirely  apart  from  association  or  com- 
munication with  his  fellows.  Thus  is  attained  that 
individual  "  absorption  in  the  Infinite  "  which  is 
the  spiritual  goal  of  many  religious  minds.  The 
well-known  "  sleeping  cases  "  of  the  Irish  revival 
were  developed  through  this  process  of  auto-hyp- 
notization.  They  attracted  wide  attention  among 
the  common  people  and  were  deemed  miraculous. 
The  subjects  of  this  phenomenon  had  the  power 
of  inducing  slumber  in  themselves  for  a  consider- 
able period  and  of  waking  at  a  specified  time.  Dr. 
McCosh,  it  will  be  remembered,  effectually  pricked 
this  bubble  of  marvel  by  citing  the  instance  of  the 
1  Buckley,  op.  cit.,  p.  180. 


EXPLANATION    OF    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA       233 

oriental  fakir  who,  before  he  passes  into  his  hibernat- 
ing trance,  announces  when  he  shall  awake,  strongly 
impresses  upon  his  mind  the  day  or  the  hour  of 
his  return  to  consciousness  and  fulfils  his  predic- 
tion to  the  letter,  —  far  more  wonderful  cases  than 
those  of  Ireland,  said  McCosh,  but  produced  in  the 
same  way  by  the  influence  of  the  imagination  upon 
the  voluntary  muscles.  Both  self-hypnotization 
and  the  entrancement  of  subjects  in  a  revival 
crowd  arise  primarily  from  the  same  predisposing 
circumstances  ;  namely,  the  distraction  of  attention 
from  the  manifold  experiences  and  concerns  of  life, 
and  limitation  of  the  field  of  consciousness  to  a 
single  subject  or  a  single  object  and  the  prolonged 
centralization  of  the  mind  thereupon.  Under  these 
conditions  inhibitive  control  soon  vanishes  and  en- 
trancement in  susceptible  persons  succeeds. 

The  stages  of  these  psychic  processes  in  reli- 
gious cases  were  definitely  observed  in  the  revival 
of  1859  in  Ireland,  and  are  recounted  in  Gibson's 
"  Year  of  Grace."1  There  was  first  an  awful  ap- 
prehension of  impending  evil,  a  fearful  looking 
forward  to  judgment  and  fiery  indignation,  ac- 
companied by  crushing  pressure  in  the  region  of 
the  heart,  inducing  despairing  cries  and  groans  of 
agony.  Then  followed  a  period  of  fierce  wrestling, 
sometimes  real,  sometimes  imaginary,  with  the  evil 
one,  whose  personality  was  apprehended  with  ter- 
rible distinctness.  Then  there  came  a  transition 
out  of  the  deep  depression  into  a  calmer  state  of 
1  P-  72- 


234      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

feeling,  and  some  object  earnestly  desired  stood 
out  before  the  view.  Now  appeared  the  entranc- 
ing vision,  with  mutterings  of  "  O  Blessed  Jesus, 
come,  Thou  art  my  hope,  my  all ;  wash  me  in  the 
precious  blood,"  etc.  In  this  stage  images  flitted 
before  the  mind  with  all  the  vividness  of  reality. 
There  was  an  evident  excitation  of  the  ganglia 
connected  with  sight.  Then  there  ensued  a  sense 
of  relief,  a  feeling  of  lightness,  the  assurance  of 
forgiveness,  prompting  to  an  outburst  of  praise. 
The  last  stage  was  one  of  great  languor  and  ex- 
haustion, showing  what  a  tremendous  output  of 
nervous  force,  freed  under  excitement,  had  been 
expended  in  these  strange  psychic  experiences. 
Not  only  delicate  women,  but  strong  men,  were  un- 
fitted for  work  for  days. 

The  temporary  loss  of  leadership  on  the  part  of 
the  higher  brain  centres  under  great  excitement  in 
a  revival  crowd  has  manifested  itself  also  in  what 
is  known  as  "the  gift  of  tongues,"  or  glossolalia. 
It  was  never  a  "  spiritual  "  phenomenon,  but  prob- 
ably always  a  perfectly  natural  one,  whether  it 
appeared  in  the  first  century  or  the  twentieth. 
The  day  of  Pentecost  and  the  years  that  follow 
constitute  a  period  when  vast  primitive  populations 
were  in  the  throes  of  the  greatest  religious  revolu- 
tion that  ever  has  been  known  among  men.  A 
great  hope  and  the  prospect  of  a  new  life  of 
achievement  and  of  character  were,  for  the  first 
time  in  this  world,  breathed  into  the  soul  of  the 
common  man.  Criticism  may  well  stand  with  un- 


EXPLANATION    OF    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA       235 

covered  head  in  the  presence  of  the  unparalleled 
stirring  of  emotion  in  that  early  age  of  exceedingly 
imperfect  knowledge  of  all  the  psychic  processes. 
It  is  one  of  the  many  marks  of  the  splendid  sanity 
of  the  Apostle  Paul  that  he  regarded  the  gift  of 
tongues  as  a  low  order  of  spiritual  endowment. 
He  puts  the  enthusiasts  who  were  thus  affected 
last  of  all  in  the  array  of  orders  that  God  hath 
set  in  His  church,1  and  he  advises  the  Corinthian 
people  to  desire  most  earnestly  greater  gifts 
(TO,  xapta-fjLara  ra  peifrva}.  Though  they  might 
speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  if 
they  were  without  that  love  which  doth  not  behave 
itself  unseemly,  they  were  only  sounding  brass  and 
a  clashing  cymbal.  And  he  declares  that  though 
on  occasion  he  had  been  caught  up  into  the  sev- 
enth heaven  of  the  mystical  consciousness,  and 
had  himself  spoken  with  tongues,  howbeit  in  the 
church  he  would  rather  speak  five  words  with 
the  understanding  that  he  might  instruct  others 
also  than  ten  thousand  words  in  a  tongue.  It  re- 
quired an  immense  amount  of  practical  sense  and 
intelligent  insight  in  that  early  time  for  a  man  of 
the  Apostle's  mystical  temperament  to  take  this 
stand.  But  he  saw  the  unfruitfulness  of  this  phe- 
nomenon and  the  injury  that  was  being  inflicted 
through  it  upon  the  higher  life  of  the  Corinthian 
congregation. 

"  Spiritual "  speaking  with  tongues  has  probably 
been  commonly  due  to  the  loss  of  rational  self-con- 
i  Cf.  i  Cor.  xii.  28  f. 


236      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

trol  on  the  part  of  primitive,  ignorant,  highly  ex- 
cited individuals  in  a  crowd  which  has  been  stirred 
religiously  to  its  depths.  The  "gift"  was  a  feature 
of  the  first  flush  of  Mormon  fanaticism,  where  it 
was  observed  and  described.1  The  witness  testi- 
fies as  follows  :  "  Those  who  speak  in  tongues  are 
generally  the  most  illiterate  among  the  '  saints,' 
such  as  cannot  command  words  as  quick  as  they 
would  wish,  and  instead  of  waiting  for  a  suitable 
word  to  come  to  their  memories  they  break  forth 
in  the  first  sound  their  tongues  can  articulate, 
no  matter  what  it  is.  Thus  some  person  in  the 
meeting  has  told  an  interesting  story  about  Zion, 
then  an  excitable  brother  gets  up  to  bear  his  '  tes- 
timony,' the  speed  of  speech  increasing  with  the 
interest  of  the  subject :  '  Beloved  brethren  and 
sisters,  I  rejoice,  and  my  heart  is  glad  to  overflow- 
ing —  I  hope  to  go  to  Zion,  and  to  see  you  all 
there  and  to  —  to  —  O,  me  sontro  von  tc,  sontro  von 
terre,  sontro  von  te.  O  me palassate  te,'  etc." 

This  example  is  open  to  the  charge  of  being  a 
more   or    less   conscious    imitation    of    the    more 
'  natural  and  useful  New  Testament   instances  of 
!  the  day  of  Pentecost.     But  this  "  gift "  has  long 
been  one  of  the  regular  accompaniments  of  demon 
•  possession  in  the  interior  of  China,  where  no  imita- 
tion of  New  Testament  models  has  been  possible. 
In   primitive  China  when    the  supposed  "  spirit " 
enters  the  subject,  "the  man's  eyes  close  tightly, 

1  Cf.  Ilawthornwaite,  "Adventures  among  the  Mormons,"  1857, 
pp.  88-91  ;   quoted  in  Riley,  "Founder  of  Mormonism,"  p.  270. 


EXPLANATION    OF    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA       237 

his  whole  body  trembles,  his  hands  and  feet  con- 
tinually move,  his  hair  loosens  from  the  braid  — 
then  he  begins  to  speak,  and  is  able  to  talk  not 
only  in  his  own  dialect,  but  in  others  as  well."  l 

The  explanation  appears  to  be  that  the  subjects 
are,  usually,  devout  but  unlearned  and  ignorant  peo- 
ple who  lack  power  of  expression  of  the  emotions 
which  crowd  upon  them  in  seasons  of  great  religious 
excitement.      Under  the  pressure  of  overwrought  I 
mental  condition   rational  control  takes  its  flight,  \ 
and  the  overheated  brain  breaks  forth  in  articula-  ' 
tions  more  or  less  unconscious,  including  odds  and 
ends  of   languages   and   dialects  with  which   the 
mind    of    the    individual    has    become    somewhat 
familiar.     Thus,  among  the  early   Mormons,  the 
"  tongues  "  were  identified  by  the  few  critical  lis- 
teners, notably  an  old   trapper,  as  in  some  cases 
snatches  of  Indian  dialects.     In  China  snatches  of 
mandarin  and  other  dialects  were  discriminated. 

I  have  illustrated  the  theory  which  is  here  set 
forth  with  examples  of  a  non-pathological  charac- 
ter. I  am  not  saying  that  there  may  not  be 
pathological  elements  which  would  enter  into  the 
explanation  of  particular  instances.  There  may 
often  be.  The  visions  of  Swedenborg  and  Mo- 
hammed were  probably  partly  due  to  epileptic 
physical  condition.  I  am  only  saying  that  essen- 
tially we  are  dealing  here  with  phenomena  of 
normal  crowd  psychology.  There  are  instances, 

1  Article,  "Demon  Possession,"  Fukhien  Witness,  June,  1904, 
p.  7.  Published  at  Anglo-Chinese  College,  Foochow,  China. 


238       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

like  the  cases  of  blindness  and  dumbness  in  the 
Irish  revivals,  which  unquestionably  proceed  from 
an  organism  that  has  been  thoroughly  weakened 
by  great  and  prolonged  emotional  orgy.  These 
cases  never  occurred  except  in  persons  who  had 
been  struck  down  a  number  of  times  by  "convic- 
tion of  sin."  In  many  instances  of  morbid  re- 
vival hysteria,  too,  the  chief  cause  may  be  actual 
disease  and  degeneration  of  function,  so  that  there 
may  appear  under  unusual  excitement  a  thor- 
oughly abnormal  instability  of  nerve  centres. 

The  most  important  purely  pathological  phe- 
nomenon of  superemotional  revivals  is  insanity. 
Of  the  mental  causes  of  insanity,  the  largest  num- 
bers are  usually  attributed  to  grief,  terror  and 
religious  excitement.1  The  revival  is  not  a  form 
of  religious  mania,  as  some  alienists  have  held,2 
but  it  presents  far  too  many  cases  for  the  study 
of  the  alienist.  I  do  not  know  that  accurate  statis- 
tical inquiry  has  ever  been  made  anywhere  into 
the  percentages  of  religious  lunacy  which  may 
occur  in  the  various  denominations.  There  is 
a  priori  probability,  however,  that  the  larger  num- 
ber of  cases  would  fall  within  those  sects  which 
are  prone  to  highly  emotional  methods.  One 
would  not  expect  to  find  much  religious  abnormal- 
ity of  this  sort  among  the  Quakers,  for  example. 

Both  conversion  and  religion  are  in  themselves 

1  Cf.,  for   example,    Mayo-Smith,    "Statistics   and   Sociology," 
p.  224. 

2  Cf.  Boris  Sidis,  "  The  Psychology  of  Suggestion,"  p.  354,  note. 


EXPLANATION    OF    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA       239 

normal  and  healthful  and  sane.  The  percentage 
of  the  insane  was  perhaps  never  higher  in  any 
country  than  during  the  days  of  revolution  and 
popular  renunciation  of  faith  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century  in  France.1  The  comforting 
and  tranquilizing  influence  of  undefiled  religion 
upon  society  is  too  evident  to  require  argument  or 
even  comment.  But  religion  or  religious  method 
worthy  of  the  name  will  neither  weaken  the  will 
nor  enfeeble  the  rational  powers.  And  it  is  at 
least  extremely  probable  that  the  highly  emotional 
revival  has  weakened  the  sense  of  responsibility 
and  the  efforts  at  control  in  many  persons  of  incipi- 
ent insane  impulses.  Every  unnecessary  religious 
melancholiac  or  maniac  is,  so  far  forth,  a  lament- 
able commentary  upon  defective  religious  method. 
The  purely  melancholiac  cases,  some  of  them 
reaching  into  mania,  which  we  have  observed  un- 
der Wesley,  Finney,  Edwards  and  others,  were  in 
certain  instances,  it  will  be  remembered,  effectually 
cured  by  the  revivalists  themselves.  The  method 
followed  in  each  instance  was  precisely  that  of  the 
heathen  exorcist.  The  priests  of  the  Nichiren  sect 
among  the  Japanese  Buddhists,  who  have  unusual 
strength  of  mind  and  force  of  will,  are  most  suc- 
cessful practitioners  in  the  same  art  of  mental  sug- 
gestion. Their  specialty  is  the  expulsion  of  fox 
spirits.2 

1  Cf.  Wigan,  "  The  Duality  of  Mind,"  p.  427. 
8  Cf.  Xevius,  "  Demon  Possession,"  p.  202,  quoting  Dr.  Baelz,  of 
the  Imperial  University  of  Japan. 


24O      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  was  in  the  habit  of  treating 
early  Mormon  demoniacs  in  the  same  manner.  A 
paragraph  from  his  journal  reads  precisely  like 
those  which  we  have  already  quoted  from  Wesley's 
journal  of  the  Bristol  demoniacs.  A  man  named 
Newell  Knight  was  attacked  by  the  "  power  of 
Satan  "  and  was  subject  to  "  curious  actions  while 
thus  afflicted." l  "I  went,"  says  Smith,  "  and 
found  him  suffering  very  much  in  his  mind,  and 
his  body  acted  upon  in  a  very  strange  manner,  his 
visage  and  limbs  distorted  and  twisted  in  every 
shape  and  appearance  possible  to  imagine,  and 
finally  he  was  caught  up  off  the  floor  of  the 
apartment  and  tossed  about  most  fearfully.  His 
situation  was  soon  made  known  to  the  neigh- 
bors and  relatives,  and  in  a  short  time  as 
many  as  eight  or  nine  grown  persons  had  gotten 
together  to  witness  the  scene.  After  he  had 
thus  suffered  for  a  time,  /  succeeded  in  getting 
hold  of  him  by  the  Jiand,  when  almost  immedi- 
ately he'  spoke  to  me  and  with  very  great  ear- 
nestness required  of  me  that  I  should  cast  the 
devil  out  of  him,  saying  that  he  knew  that  he  was 
in  him  and  that  he  also  knew  I  could  cast  him 
out.  I  replied,  '  If  you  know  that  I  can,  it  shall  be 
done,'  and  then  almost  unconsciously  he  rebuked 
the  devil  and  commanded  him  in  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  depart  from  him,  when  immediately  New- 
ell spoke  out  and  said  that  he  saw  the  devil  leave 
him  and  vanish  from  his  sight.  This  was  the  first 
1  Smith's  "Journal,"  p.  50. 


EXPLANATION    OK    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA       24! 

miracle  that  was  done  in  this  church."  Wesley 
was  so  cautious  and  so  doubtful  of  the  strange  and 
obscure  effect  of  his  own  presence  and  influence 
upon  the  Bristol  sufferers  that  his  account  is  very 
modest  and  impersonal,  although  it  was  obviously 
the  power  of  his  own  personality  which  wrought 
the  cure.  He  even  distinctly  remarks  that  he  leaves 
every  one  to  his  own  judgment  of  the  matter. 
But  Smith  sets  himself  up  as  a  miracle  worker  on 
the  instant.  It  is  a  simple  incident,  but  it  discrimi- 
nates accurately  the  characters  of  these  two  widely 
disparate  religious  leaders. 

There  seems  to  be  a  common  explanation  for 
all  these  cases  which  display  such  striking  simi- 
larity. The  incipient  melancholia  or  mania  be- 
came religious  by  the  process  of  auto-suggestion. 
The  weak  mind  was  overmastered  under  revival 
pressure  by  ideas  of  grievous  sin  and  apostasy 
and  of  impending  wrath  and  penalty.  And  it  was 
the  healing  power  of  strong  mental  impression 
which  exorcised  the  obsessing  demon  —  for  the 
demon  even  in  China  is  only  an  overmastering 
idea  —  and  restored  the  normal  balance.  . 

There  is  a  single  phenomenon  more  which  I 
i  wish  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  the  reader  for  the 
Ipurpose  of  offering  a  natural  explanation.  The 
outbreak  of  impulsive  action  in  revivals,  originat- 
ing almost  always  among  the  least  self-controlled 
of  the  congregation,  may  be  interpreted  in  terms 
of  psychological  law.  All  revolutionary  move- 
ments, whether  religious,  political  or  industrial,  no 


242       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

matter  how  carefully  and  wisely  they  may  have 
been  discussed  beforehand  by  intelligent  and  well- 
balanced  reformers,  are  subject  to  this  law.  Gar- 
rison, George  William  Curtis  and  John  Brown  were 
all  prominent  in  the  initiation  of  the  anti-slavery 
crusade.  The  first  two  were  thoughtful,  respon- 
sible men.  John  Brown  was  a  man  of  earnest  sin- 
cerity, but  an  impulsive  fanatic  who  did  not  reckon 
with  the  consequences.  And  he  struck  the  first 
blow.  So  the  Reign  of  Terror  was  inaugurated  by 
the  unorganized  horde  who  sacked  the  gunsmith 

shops  of  Paris  and  then  stormed  the  Bastile. 

'  A 

It  is  a  matter  of  frequent  observation  on  the 

part  of  those  who  are  familiar  with  revival  crowds 
that,  ordinarily,  the  first  to  fall  under  the  influence 
of  the  speaker  and  of  the  environment  are  the 
relatively  impulsive,  less  rational,  less  responsible 
elements  in  the  audience.  It  has  sometimes  been 
a  source  of  chagrin  and  mortification  to  the  intelli- 
gent, high-minded  revivalist  that  this  should  occur. 
But  it  does  usually  occur  under  the  free  operation 
of  the  revival  method,  and  it  has  often  been  an  ob- 
stacle to  the  spread  of  pure  and  undefiled  religion 
among  sober  and  cultivated  persons  who  have  wit- 
nessed the  phenomenon.  For  example,  I  have 
known  a  very  promising  religious  awakening  to  be 
nipped  in  the  bud  in  a  moment  by  the  sudden 
movement  towards  the  altar  of  a  recently  dis- 
charged convict  in  whom  the  community  and  the 
audience  had  little  confidence,  and  who  was  evi- 
dently temporarily  overcome  by  the  magnetism  of 


EXPLANATION    OF    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA       243 


the  preacher.  The  most  impressionable  elements 
in  a  community  come  to  be  very  well  known  and 
need  not  be  of  a  criminal  or  vagabond  type  at  all. 
They  may  be  only  the  most  nervously  unstable 
and  suggestible.  When  the  movement  toward  re- 
ligion in  a  community  originates  among  them,  as 
it  commonly  does  under  revival  leadership,  there 
is  frequently  positive  injury  done  to  the  cause. 

And  there  is  only  the  most  rudimentary  psy- 
chological principle  involved  in  all  these  cases. 


Figure  I 


Figure  II 


SINGLE  SPINAL  GANGLION 


CURRENT  DEFLECTEO 
INTO  THE  BRAIN 


Who  are  they  who  give  way  immediately  to  im- 
pulse? They  are  the  relatively  untrained  elements 
of  society,  those  whose  spinal  ganglia  and  lower 
brain  centres  are  more  highly  developed  than  the 
higher  rational  and  volitional  faculties  that  have 
their  throne  in  the  gray  matter  of  the  cortex. 
When  the  sensation  passes  along  the  afferent  nerve, 
the  impulse  to  action  is  at  once  delivered  over  the 
efferent  nerve  to  the  muscle.  But  if  the  higher 
centres  of  inhibition  are  well  developed,  and  the 
current  of  sensation  or  a  part  of  it  is  deflected  into 
the  brain,  the  sensation  or  complex  of  sensations  is 
detained,  so  to  speak,  and  the  whole  cortical  appa- 


244      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

ratus  of  the  cerebrum  may  be  brought  to  bear 
upon  the  matter  in  the  process  of  reflection.  The 
brain  may  decide  that  it  is  proper  for  the  muscles 
to  act,  and  in  that  case  will  reenforce  the  impulse. 
Or  it  may  inhibit  the  impulse,  and  the  whole  life  of 
reflective  action  is  begun.  The  least  self-controlled, 
with  whom  impulsive  social  action  commonly  origi- 
nates, are  they  whose  higher  faculties  of  inhibition 
are  not  regnant. 

Step  by  step  the  domain  of  the  mental  is  being 
reduced  to  law  and  order.  In  these  chapters  we 
have  seen  that  certain  revival  phenomena,  widely 
believed  to  be  supernatural,  reveal  uniformities 
which  fix  them  in  the  category  of  the  natural. 
So  far  as  their  relation  to  a  genuine  religious 
experience  is  concerned,  the  most  that  can  be 
said  of  them  is  that  they  may  sometimes  be  the 
concomitants  of  such  experience  but  ought  never 
to  be  mistaken  for  it.  They  and  other  phe- 
nomena like  them  deserve  to  be  thoroughly  sifted 
by  criticism.  They  ought  to  be  met  everywhere 
as  Paul  met  them  in  the  church  at  Corinth.  He 
had  to  face  disorders  of  a  similar  character  and 
the  opposition  of  those  who  said  that  in  checking 
them  he  was  resisting  the  Holy  Ghost.  We  are  all 
moved  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  said  the  Corinthians. 
The  spirits  of  the  prophets  shall  be  subject  to  the 
critical  discrimination  of  the  prophets,  said  Paul.1 
God  is  not  a  God  of  mental  chaos  but  of  rational 
peace  and  joy. 

1  I  Cor.  xiv. 


EXPLANATION    OF    REVIVAL    PHENOMENA       245 

It  would  be  superficial  to  speak  of  such  an 
investigation  as  this  as  involving  the  elimination 
of  the  supernatural  from  the  process  of  regenera- 
tion. We  have  only  segregated  a  few  phenomena 
of  conversion  at  white  heat  and  interpreted  them 
in  terms  of  the  psychic  process.  We  have  dis- 
covered that  certain  alleged  phases  of  religious 
experience  cannot  be  reckoned  as  divine  except  as 
the  whole  process  of  evolution  from  the  animal  to 
the  spiritual  is  itself  divine.  It  is  not  our  task  to 
enter  into  the  deeper  question  of  whether  the  con- 
version experience  in  its  entirety  is  a  natural 
product.  Even  if  it  were  possible  to  sound  the 
depths  of  the  human  spirit  in  the  hour  of  religious 
crisis  and  reduce  the  whole  realm  of  the  mental  to 
relations  of  coexistence  and  sequence,  we  should 
not  then  be  free  to  affirm  that  we  had  eliminated 
the  supernatural.  It  would  still  be  open  to  the 
philosophic  religionist  to  declare,  —  All's  law,  but 
all's  God. 


CHAPTER  XII 

CONVERSION  BY  SUGGESTION 

IT  cannot  escape  the  notice  of  the  patient  inves- 
tigator that  the  literature  of  revivals  abounds  with 
records  of  the  lapsed,  the  backsliders,  those  who 
have  fallen  from  grace.  In  those  churches  where 
the  probation  system  after  revival  is  employed,  the 
shrinkage  between  the  number  of  registered  pro- 
bationers and  the  number  of  registered  church 
members  occasions  much  comment  and  anxiety. 
Many  thoughtful  clergymen  in  these  sects  have 
determined  definitely,  as  a  result  of  their  own  ex- 
perience, that  accessions  are  likely  to  be  of  more 
stable  and  useful  quality  if  quieter  and  more 
rational  methods  are  employed  in  winning  men 
than  'those  which  have  been  traditional  in  their 
denominations.  It  seems  to  be  as  true  of  spiritual 
fruit  as  of  natural  that  it  maintains  a  state  of 
excellent  preservation  longer  when  it  is  garnered 
by  hand  than  when  it  is  swept  from  the  tree  by  a 
storm.  Here,  too,  I  do  not  offer  it  as  a  complete 
explanation,  —  for  many  professed  converts  who 
return  to  the  old  paths  might  perhaps  have  been 
advanced  in  the  higher  life  by  a  wiser  system  of 
probationary  nurture, — but  I  regard  it  as  extremely 
246 


CONVERSION  BY  SUGGESTION        247 

probable  that  a  great  number  of  the  lapsed  are  such 
because  they  were  simply  victims  of  the  powerful 
forces  of  suggestion  and  imitation  which  are  at 
work  in  every  typical  revival,  and  were  not  conyj 
in  any  high  sense  whatever. 

There  is  a  far  greater  amount  than  people  gen- 
erally believe,  I  think,  of  conversion  by  suggestion, 
which  is  only  that  and  nothing  more.  The  typical 
revival  lends  itself  readily  to  this  consummation. 
There  is  always  the  stage  of  preparation  in  which 
the  one  overshadowing  interest  is  held  before  the 
mind  of  congregations  for  days  or  for  weeks. 
The  fervor  and  intensity  are  greatly  heightened 
by  the  united  prayers  and  expectations  of  the 
church.  When  the  crucial  moment  arrives  and 
the  great  assembly  has  met  with  common  purpose 
and  hope,  there  are  all  the  conditions  present  for 
the  easy  control  of  the  most  suggestible.  They 
are  precisely  those  which  the  hypnotist  seeks 
after.1  Every  effort  is  made  to  secure  fixation  of 
attention  upon  the  subject  and  the  speaker.  Dis- 
traction of  mind  is  guarded  against  by  the  revival- 
ist, who  seeks  to  have  fresh  air  let  into  the  room 
before  the  sermon,  and  enjoins  perfect  quiet  even 
to  the  cessation  of  the  movement  of  fans  in  the 
hands  of  the  women  of  the  audience.  The  mo- 
notony which  results  is  a  prime  condition  of  sug- 
gestibility, and  the  effect  of  it  is  seen  in  that 
profound  silence  which  passes  over  a  great  assem- 
bly when  the  speaker  has  it  under  oratorical 

1  Cf.  Boris  Sidis,  "The  Psychology  of  Suggestion,"  p.  61. 


248      PRIMITIVE   TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

mastery.  It  is  frequently  so  perfect  that  you  can 
hear  the  buzzing  of  a  fly  or  the  slight  sputter  of  an 
arc  light. 

The  limitation  of  voluntary  movements  is  of 
course  very  complete  in  such  an  assembly,  and  the 
shrinkage  of  the  field  of  consciousness  to  the  con- 
sideration of  the  one  supreme  theme  is  brought 
about  in  exceedingly  skilful  ways  by  experienced 
men.  It  is  well  known  also  that  the  employment 
of  symbolic  images  immensely  increases  the  emo- 
tion of  an  audience.  The  vocabulary  of  revivals 
abounds  in  them — the  cross,  the  crown,  the  angel 
band,  hell,  heaven.  Now  vivid  imagination  and 
strong  feeling  and  belief  are  states  of  mind  favor- 
able to  suggestion  as  well  as  to  impulsive  action. 
It  is  also  true  that  the  influence  of  a  crowd  largely 
in  sympathy  with  the  ideas  suggested  is  thoroughly 
coercive  or  intimidative  upon  the  individual  sinner. 
There  is  considerable  professed  conversion  which 
results  in  the  beginning  from  little  more  than  this 
form  of  social  pressure,  and  which  may  never 
develop  beyond  it.  Finally,  the  inhibition  of  all 
extraneous  ideas  is  encouraged  in  revival  assem- 
blies both  by  prayer  and  speech.  There  is,  there- 
fore, extreme  sensitiveness  to  suggestion. 

When  to  these  conditions  of  negative  conscious- 
ness on  the  part  of  an  audience  there  is  added  a 
conductor  of  the  meetings  who  has  a  high  hypnotic 
potential,  such  as  Wesley  or  Finney,  or  who  is 
only  a  thoroughly  persuasive  and  magnetic  person- 
ality, such  as  Whitefield,  there  may  easily  be  an 


CONVERSION    BY    SUGGESTION  249 

influence  exerted  upon  certain  individuals  of  a 
crowd  which  closely  approaches  the  abnormal  or 
thoroughly  hypnotic.  When  this  point  is  not 
reached,  there  is  still  a  great  amount  of  highly 
acute  though  normal  suggestibility  to  be  reckoned 
with. 

And  the  methods  in  detail  frequently  heighten 
the  effect  which  is  here  described.  At  the  close 
of  his  sermon,  the  revivalist  usually  asks  for  what 
he  terms  immediate  surrender,  to  be  announced  by 
uplifting  the  hand  or  rising  to  the  feet  or  signing 
a  card  or  a  movement  towards  the  after-meeting, 
while  the  impression  is  kept  up  by  the  very  silent 
departure  of  the  congregation.  Sometimes  the 
audience  is  detained  in  this  tense  state  of  mind, 
and  the  process  of  "  influencing  the  seeker "  is 
carried  to  a  refined  extreme.1  The  people  are 
requested  to  sing  a  hymn  full  of  pointed  sugges- 
tion and  fervent  emotion,  while  the  "seekers"  are 
invited  to  kneel  at  the  altar.  The  conductor  of  the 
meeting  and  certain  of  the  workers  especially  chosen 
for  the  purpose  kneel  also,  with  the  hand  on  the 
shoulder  or  on  the  head  of  the  person  under  con- 
viction, and  repeat  in  solemn,  measured  cadence 
a  few  well-tested  sentences  of  revival  interrogatory 
and  admonition,  such  as,  "  Won't  you  trust  Him?" 
"Jesus  saves  you  now!"  "Trust  and  obey!" 
"  Only  believe  !  "  "  Give  yourself  to  God  this 
moment ! "  Emphasis  is  always  laid  upon  sur- 

1  Cf.  Starbuck,  "  The  Psychology  of  Religion,"  for  a  similar  de- 
scription of  a  process  which  I  have  frequently  observed. 


/  render  of  the  will.  Of  course  there  are  those  who, 
under  these  exceedingly  impressive  circumstances, 
yield  with  a  high  motive,  reason  assenting  to  the 
step.  There  are  such  men  and  women,  especially 
of  an  older  generation,  in  all  the  churches,  who  have 
been  drawn  by  this  process  of  crude  suggestion  into 
what  has  been  for  many  of  them  a  broader  and  a 
better  life.  But  the  number  of  them  has  never 
been  great  enough  to  relieve  the  method  of  odium, 
and  there  can  be  no  question  that  there  has  been 
much  harm  done  to  society  by  this  wholesale 
hypnotization  of  weak  or  recalcitrant  wills.  The 
difficulty  of  training  the  mass  of  men  to  act  indi- 
vidually and  collectively  with  deliberation  and 
with  a  strongly  volitional  purpose  is  sufficiently 
enormous  without  the  undermining  of  such  intelli- 
gent effort  as  there  is  by  a  seriously  defective 
religious  method. 

Particularly  is  this  to  be  deprecated  when  we 
consider  that  positive,  deliberated  decisions  to  rise 
from  a  lower  plane  of  life  to  the  practice  of  the 
lofty  ideals  of  the  Christian  religion  in  the  aggre- 
gate contribute  enormously  to  the  strengthening  of 
both  individual  and  social  character.  But  reliance 
upon  the  power  of  crude,  crowd  suggestion  pro- 
duces far  too  many  purely  negative  converts,  pas- 
sive suggestibles  all,  with  whom  any  implanted  idea 
leads  at  once  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  same,  who 
"  act  and  reenact  the  old  farce  of  being  converted 
at  every  revival "  and  who  fall  from  grace  with 
facility  and  despatch  when  the  temporary  stimula- 


CONVERSION    BY    SUGGESTION  2$ I 

tion  of  suggestion  is  removed.  In  the  method  as 
it  is  often  baldly  employed  there  is  nothing  religious 
whatever.  It  is  even  practised  by  some  members 
of  the  medical  profession  who  perceive  the  curative 
possibilities  of  psychic  influence  in  certain  cases 
with  which  they  have  to  deal.  But  the  process  of 
endorming  habitual  drunkards  and  other  disso- 
lute persons  has  achieved  only  moderate  success. 
Without  frequent  application  of  hypnotic  sugges- 
tion, a  relapse  is  likely  to  occur.  And  even  if 
permanent  reclamation  should  follow  in  any  par- 
ticular instance,  it  would  hardly  be  correct  to  speak 
of  the  method  as  religious. 

It  will  not  surprise  the  reader  to  learn  that  these 
passive  revival  suggestibles  are  almost  always  the 
subjects  who  experience  the  mental  and  motor 
automatisms.  This  is  naturally  so  for  two  reasons. 
These  persons  are  most  easily  deprived  of  their 
own  power  of  inhibition,  and  under  the  stimulation 
of  fear  or  great  excitement,  the  primitive  reflexes 
—  the  prostration,  the  trances,  the  convulsions  — 
will  appear.  Furthermore,  if  the  desirability  or 
divine  worth  of  these  peculiar  excitations  is  made 
much  of  in  the  meeting,  or  even  indirectly  hinted 
at,  as  it  frequently  is,  these  persons  are  they  in 
whom  the  suggestion  will  most  quickly  bear  fruit. 

Now  the  injury  of  such  hypnotic  procedure  is 
not  confined  to  the  weak  creatures  who  are  most 
often  affected  by  it.  There  are  men  and  women 
of  a  higher  mental  and  moral  grade  who  are  tem- 
porarily brought  under  its  sway  and  under  the 


2$2       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

thrall  of  great  revival  excitement,  who  feel  such 
shame  and  repugnance  when  the  reaction  follows 
that  they  are  inclined  to  discard  not  a  faulty  and 
vicious  method,  but  religion  itself.  And  they 
often  do.  There  have  been  instances  of  that  sort 
within  my  own  acquaintance,  but  I  prefer  to  use  a 
few  of  the  impersonal  illustrations  which  Starbuck 
has  gathered.1  I  have  no  doubt  that  any  reader 
will  recall  more  than  one  instance  of  his  own 
knowledge. 

One  correspondent  writes  thus  of  the  forces 
which  led  to  his  conversion  at  fifteen.  "  My  will 
seemed  wholly  at  the  mercy  of  others,  particularly 

of  the  revivalist  M .  There  was  absolutely  no 

intellectual  element.  It  was  pure  feeling.  There 
followed  a  period  of  ecstasy.  I  was  bent  on  doing 
good  and  was  eloquent  in  appealing  to  others. 
The  state  of  moral  exaltation  did  not  continue. 
It  was  followed  by  a  complete  relapse  from  ortho- 
dox religion." 

Another  observer  writes  of  an  exciting  revival  in 
which  the  meetings  were  held  until  the  early  morn- 
ing. "  Some  persons  in  the  midst  of  the  excite- 
ment lay  prostrate  on  the  floor.  One  crawled  on 
hands  and  knees  about  the  aisles,  and  some  went 
into  trance.  I  know  that  one  young  man  who 
was  a  teacher  in  our  school  went  to  the  board  soon 
after  —  the  writer  is  a  member  of  the  school 
board — and  told  them  that  he  was  very  sorry  for 
and  ashamed  of  the  part  he  had  taken,  that  he  was 

1  "The  Psychology  of  Religion,"  p.  165  f. 


CONVERSION  BY  SUGGESTION        253 

not  fully  himself  at  the  time.  A  seventeen-year- 
old  girl  lay  in  what  they  called  a  trance  for  nineteen 
hours  and  has  never  been  able  to  take  more  than 
one  study  in  school  since.  Three  of  those  who 
took  a  very  prominent  part  seem  to  have  grown 
cold  and  are  seldom  at  the  place  of  worship." 

One  young  man  who  had  been  overwrought 
under  the  power  of  a  revivalist  called  it  a  "  gold- 
brick  "  deal  and  said  that  he  had  hardly  been  in 
church  since. 

We  have  also  in  this  uncanny  power  of  the  hyp- 
notic personality  a  means  of  explanation  of  the 
mysterious  influence  of  men  of  thoroughly  super- 
ficial character  and  ability  upon  a  revival  crowd. 
Professor  Coe 1  has  written  of  the  evangelist  who 
would  cry  out  at  the  critical  moment  to  a  packed 
and  breathless  assembly,  "  See  them  coming,  see 
them  coming,"  when  as  yet  no  single  individual  had 
started  for  the  altar.  And  the  poor  sheep  heard 
his  voice  and  followed,  but  it  was  not  the  voice  of  a 
shepherd. 

And  that  other  religious  hypnotist  whom  we 
have  all  seen, —  his  custom  was  to  walk  with  meas- 
ured tread  through  the  aisles  of  the  crowded  church, 
and  carefully  picking  his  subjects,  touch  them  on 
the  shoulder  or  speak  a  word  in  the  ear,  and  draw 
them  by  purely  psychic  leadings  into  a  step  of 
whose  significance  they  had  no  comprehension  and 
the  weakness  and  false  pretence  of  which  they 
later  laughed  to  scorn.  .  .  .  Measured  by  its 

1  "The  Spiritual  Life,"  p.  144  f. 


254      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

effect  upon  character,  the  burly  fist  of  Peter  Cart- 
wright  —  occasionally  employed  to  bring  an  espe- 
cially vicious  and  cantankerous  sinner  to  a  realizing  r 
sense  of  his  shortcoming  —  was  a  far  better  instru- 
ment than  the  uncanny  eye  of  the  modern  apostle 
of  religious  suggestion. 

It  has  more  than  once  been  a  source  of  reproach 
and  scandal  to  the  church  that  some  professional 
evangelist,  who  has  won  large  numbers  of  con- 
verts, has  been  afterwards  revealed  as  having  been 
all  the  while  living  a  criminal  or  at  least  utterly 
unworthy  life.  It  is  easy  now  to  see  why  such  a 
career  is  entirely  possible.  The  most  remarkable 
example  of  a  man  of  this  species  that  has  ever 
been  brought  to  my  attention  is  one  La  Roy  Sun- 
derland,  who  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century  was 
a  prominent  clergyman  in  New  England  and  par- 
ticularly influential  in  the  antislavery  movement.1 
He  was  an  exceedingly  able  lecturer  upon  what 
was  then  called  mesmerism  or  magnetism.  Under 
the  first  sermon  which  he  delivered  after  he  en- 
tered the  ministry,  almost  the  entire  audience  was 
struck  down  entranced  upon  the  floor  by  "  the 
power  of  God."  It  is  said  that  a  wide  range  of 
reflex  phenomena  practically  always  appeared  un- 
der his  preaching.  In  the  later  years  of  his  life  he 
was  tried  for  slander  and  falsehood  by  four  ecclesi- 
astical conferences  and  several  courts.  He  always 

1  The  following  facts  are  contained  in  two  signed  articles  by 
Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley,  the  New  York  Christian  Advocate,  May  28  and 
June  4,  1885. 


CONVERSION    BY   SUGGESTION  255 

defended  himself  and  he  always  won  his  case. 
Judges  would  warn  juries  against  his  malign  in- 
fluence, but  it  made  no  difference.  He  was 
promptly  acquitted.  Finally  he  gave  up  religion, 
on  the  ground  that  he  had  proved  its  sweet  influ- 
ences to  be  the  product  of  mesmeric  fraud !  In 
1836  M.  Poyen  came  to  New  York  from  Paris  and 
aroused  great  interest  by  the  practice  and  exposi- 
tion of  the  principles  of  mesmerism.  Sunderland 
applied  to  him  for  instruction,  but  soon  found  that 
his  own  ability  was  quite  equal  to  the  Frenchman's. 
Sometime  after  there  visited  him  at  his  home  two 
friends  of  his  earlier  days.  One  of  them  was  a 
young  woman  who  had  been  influenced  in  his 
meetings.  I  now  quote  his  own  words  of  descrip- 
tion. "  I  recognized  her  as  one  of  my  converts 
who  had  been  entranced  under  a  sermon  I  had 
preached  in  1824.  .  .  .  When  the  opportunity 
came,  I  asked  her  if  she  had  heard  M.  Poyen.  .  .  . 
'  Oh,  yes,'  she  said.  '  And  I  have  often  been  en- 
tranced in  the  same  way  by  my  husband.' "  Sun- 
derland asked  to  see  her  in  that  condition. 
"  Whereupon  she  immediately  complied,  and  lean- 
ing back  in  her  chair,  closed  her  eyes.  ...  In  a 
few  moments  she  appeared  to  be  in  a  state  of 
ecstatic  joy,  when  she  grasped  my  hand  and  said, 
'  Oh,  Brother  Sunderland,  this  is  the  happiest  state 
I  ever  was  in.  It  is  heaven.  And  do  you  remem- 
ber how  I  went  into  this  state  under  that  powerful 
sermon  you  preached  in  our  church  in  ScituaU: 
Harbor  years  ago  ?  I  was  then  caught  up  to 


PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 


paradise  as  St.  Paul  was.  .  .  .  Yes,  Brother 
Sunderland,  and  this  is  the  same  heaven,  the  same 
as  when  my  soul  was  converted  and  filled  with  the 
love  of  God.'  " 

And  I  lay  particular  stress  upon  this  matter 
here  because,  while  the  employment  of  irrational 
fear  in  revivals  has  largely  passed  away,  the  em- 
ployment of  the  hypnotic  method  has  not  passed 
away.  There  has  rather  been  a  recrudescence  and 
a  conscious  strengthening  of  it  because  the  old 
prop  of  terror  is  gone.  And  it  cannot  be  too 
vigorously  emphasized  that  such  a  form  of  influ- 
ence is  not  a  "  spiritual  "  force  in  any  high  or  clear 
sense  at  all,  but  is  rather  uncanny  and  psychic  and 
obscure.  And  the  method  itself  needs  to  be 
greatly  refined  before  it  can  ever  be  of  any  spiritual 
benefit  whatever.  It  is  thoroughly  primitive  and 
belongs  with  the  animal  and  instinctive  means  of 
fascination.  In  this  bald,  crude  form  the  feline 
employs  it  upon  the  helpless  bird  and  the  Indian 
medicine-man  upon  the  ghost-dance  votary.  When 
used,  as  it  has  often  been,  upon  little  children  who 
are  naturally  highly  suggestible,  it  has  no  justifica- 
tion whatever  and  is  mentally  and  morally  injurious 
in  the  highest  degree.  I  do  not  see  how  violent 
emotional  throes  and  the  use  of  the  art  of  sugges- 
tion in  its  crude  form  can  be  made  serviceable  even 
in  the  case  of  hardened  sinners,  and  certainly  with 
large  classes  of  the  population  the  employment  of 
this  means  is  nothing  but  psychological  malprac- 
tice. We  guard  with  intelligent  care  against 


CONVERSION  BY  SUGGESTION        257 

quackery  in  physiological  obstetrics.  It  would  be 
well  if  a  sterner  training  and  prohibition  hedged 
about  the  spiritual  obstetrician,  whose  function  it  is 
to  guide  the  far  more  delicate  psychological  pro- 
cess of  the  new  birth. 

It  may  be  important  to  add  a  single  caution 
with  respect  to  this  much-reviled  practice.  Sug- 
gestibility and  the  tendency  to  imitation  are  by  no 
means  altogether  evil.  They  are  qualities  which 
are  instinctive  in  the  human  spirit  and  will  never 
be  banished  from  their  seat.  The  finest  social 
natures  will  always  possess  them,  but  as  the 
mental  evolution  of  the  race  goes  on,  these  qualities 
will  come  under  the  perfect  dominion  of  reason 
and  the  will.  The  art  of  normal  suggestion  itself 
will  become  more  and  more  refined  until  in  thera- 
peutics, in  education,  even  in  religion,  it  will  be 
skilfully  employed  "  to  set  the  conscious  will  in 
the  right  direction."  l  But  in  each  of  these  fields 
of  cultural  activity,  how  wise  and  dexterous  must 
the  practitioner  be ! 

1  Moll,  "  Hypnotism,"  p.  364. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE    PASSIONAL    AND    THE    RATIONAL    IN    RELIGION 

WE  have  long  grown  accustomed  to  thinking  of 
the  body  of  man  as  a  product  of  evolution.  The 
structural  resemblance  to  the  lower  animals,  the 
various  rudimentary  survivals  in  the  human  frame, 
point  unmistakably  to  a  common  physical  origin 
for  brute  and  man.  But  many  well-informed 
persons  have  perhaps  not  entirely  habituated  them- 
selves to  the  thought  of  the  development  of  mind 
by  a  gradual  process.  And  yet  later  researches  in 
the  psychology  of  men  and  animals,  in  anthropol- 
ogy, in  philology,  leave  little  doubt  that  the  mind 
of  man  is  an  evolution  as  truly  as  the  body.  With 
the  progressive  differentiation  of  the  nervous 
system  in  the  animal  world  appear  progressively 
higher  psychical  characteristics.  The  animal  mind 
culminates  in  the  active  development  of  instinct 
and  emotion,  with  the  faint  beginnings  of  intellec- 
tuality. 

In  the  life  of  the  child,  sensation,  perception, 
emotion,  imagination,  rational  judgment,  manifest 
themselves  gradually  and  successively.  "The 
stealing  in  of  that  inexplicable  light  —  yet  not  more 
light  than  sound  and  touch  —  called  consciousness, 

258 


PASSIONAL    AND    RATIONAL    IN    RELIGION        259 

the  first  flicker  of  memory,  the  gradual  governance 
of  the  will,  the  silent  ascendency  of  reason,  —  these 
are  studies  in  evolution,  the  oldest,  the  sweetest 
and  the  most  full  of  meaning  for  mankind."  1 

In  the  life  of  the  race  the  instinctive  and  the 
emotional  and  the  imaginative  function  and 
strengthen  long  ages  before  the  rational  comes  to 
its  throne.  The  primitive  man  may  have  had  all 
the  mental  potentialities  of  the  highly  civilized, 
but  his  endowments  assuredly  have  manifested 
themselves  gradually,  with  the  broadening  of 
environment  and  the  deepening  of  experience. 
There  is  a  vast  distance  between  the  primitive  and 
the  most  highly  developed  modern  type  of  mind. 
There  is  also  a  marked  difference  between  types 
of  mind  in^  the  same  modern  population  at  the 
same  moment.  By  taking  account  of  the  indefinite 
series  of  gradations  from  lowest  mental  faculty  to 
highest,  it  is  possible  to  discriminate  with  clearness 
a  number  of  psychological  classes  in  any  popula- 
tion.2 We  are  concerned  in  the  study  of  religious 
revivals  principally  with  two  types,  the  emotional 
and  the  rational.  These  are  popular  designations 
and  not  precise  scientific  terms,  but  they  will  per- 
haps suffice  if  somewhat  exactly  defined.  By  the 
emotional  type  I  mean  that  part  of  the  population, 
religious  or  political,  in  which  instinct,  habit, 

1  Drummond,  "The  Ascent  of  Man,"  p.  119. 

2  Cf.    The   Psychological  Review,    1901,   July,  "A  Provisional 
Distribution  of  Population  in  the  United  States,"  or  the  "  Inductive 
Sociology,"  p.  86  f.,  Giddings. 


26O      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

suggestion,  feeling,  imagination,  belief,  are  domi- 
nant in  mass  and  in  control.  This  type  frequently 
exhibits  great  power  of  deductive  reasoning,  but 
its  premises  are  usually  beliefs  and  not  proposi- 
tions inductively  established.  It  is  not  devoid  of 
critical  intelligence,  but  is  not  habitually  ruled  by 
it.  At  its  best,  its  power  and  its  danger  are  in 
its  moral  passion  and  not  in  its  rational  judgment. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  critically  intelligent  type, 
if  it  naturally  flowers  in  a  population,  without 
suffering  atrophy  of  any  of  its  constituent  ele- 
ments, is  a  higher  product  of  the  evolutionary 
process  than  the  emotional.  Deep  feeling,  sen- 
sitiveness to  objective  suggestion,  a  chastened 
imagination,  are  not  trodden  under  foot  of  the 
rational,  if  the  development  be  true  to  nature's 
plan.  These  constituent  elements  are,  however, 
guided  and  governed  by  clear  thinking  and 
vigorous  powers  of  inhibition.  It  is  happily  true 
that  the  group  of  individuals  who  are  habitually 
swayed  not  by  sentiment  or  emotion,  but  by  com- 
mon sense  and  reason,  who  in  every  emergency  and 
crisis  of  experience  stop  to  think,  is  a  steadily 
increasing  class  in  the  United  States  and  in  the 
other  great  modern  nations.  The  emotional  type 
is  on  its  way  to  perfection,  but  is  still  characterized 
by  certain  prominent  mental  traits  of  primitive  man. 
And  these  still  have  power  to  burst  all  bonds  of 
rational  control.  The  type  of  critical  intelligence, 
so  far  as  it  has  become  naturally  established,  has 
approached  more  nearly  to  the  evolutionary  climax 


THE    PASSIONAL    AND    RATIONAL    IN    RELIGION        26 1 

of  mind.  The  instinctive,  the  impulsive,  the  prim- 
itive are  not  eliminated,  they  are  only  subordinated 
to  a  higher  power.  Stimulation  is  no  longer 
followed  immediately  by  action,  but  rather  by 
reflection,  and  later,  if  need  be,  by  action.  Fact 
and  truth  and  sound  judgment  act  as  a  check  upon 
too  ready  belief  and  overpowering  emotion. 

And  just  as  mental  life  in  general  rises  through 
the  instinctive  and  the  emotional  to  the  gradual 
perfection  of  reason  and  will  and  conscience,  so 
the  more  ideal  spiritual  experiences  of  the  race  ex- 
hibit similar  stages  of  growth  and  progression.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  demonstrate  that  religion  was 
originally  instinctive  in  the  human  breast.  But 
there  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  yearning  of 
the  human  spirit  for  the  help  of  a  higher  power, 
and  for  communion  with  a  higher  power,  began 
very  early  and  was  very  intense  from  its  begin- 
ning. But  long  before  the  stage  of  religious  yearn- 
ing was  reached,  the  human  race  passed  through  a 
terrible  and  irrational  experience  of  dread  relation 
to  spiritual  beings  with  which  their  primitive  minds 
peopled  the  world.  The  origin  of  religion  has 
often  been  attributed  to  the  feeling  of  man  that 
there  was  something  wrong  in  him.  It  would  be 
truer  to  attribute  it  to  the  intense  feeling  of  early 
man  that  there  was  something  wrong  about  the 
unseen  and  the  unknown.  The  experiences  of 
storm  and  flood  and  wild  beasts  and  powerful 
enemies  and  disease  and  hunger  and  death  were 
ascribed  to  the  supernatural  malignity  of  unseen 


262      PRIMITIVE   TRAITS   IN   RELIGIOUS   REVIVALS 

beings  like  himself,  but  vastly  more  powerful 
and  evil.  That  primitive  religious  belief  was 
strongly  rooted  in  fear  has  long  been  evident  to 
the  student  of  pagan  religions.  What  hope  and 
trust  there  might  have  been  were  more  than  half 
concealed  and  arose  only  in  the  face  of  some  un- 
looked-for benefit,  some  unexpected  deliverance. 
The  evil  spirits  were  legion,  and  the  good  spirits 
were  few.  Fear  sat  on  the  throne  of  the  human 
soul  and  hope  as  yet  scarce  lifted  up  its  head. 
But  this  is  not  all  of  the  matter.  Back  of  the 
emotion  of  fear  was  the  expectation  of  evil.  But 
back  of  hope,  when  it  first  began  to  dawn  out  of 
fear,  was  the  expectation  of  and  the  desire  for  life, 
for  self-preservation.  And  side  by  side  with  the 
strengthening  of  this  instinct  for  continuing  exist- 
ence, the  sad  circumstances  of  the  pain  economy 
to  which  early  man  was  subject  developed  in  him 
a  sense  of  dependence  upon  a  good  power  that  was 
other  than  himself  and  greater  than  himself. 
Religion  in  any  high  sense  was  therefore  born  of 
mental  need  and  longing.  And  this  is  only  another 
way  of  saying  that  they  seem  to  be  right  who  hold 
that  the  tap-root  of  religion  is  feeling  and  emotion. 
But  it  would  be  difficult  to  prove  that  reason 
played  no  part  in  laying  even  the  earliest  founda- 
tions of  religious  faith.  It  is  significant  that  the 
brute,  which  has  a  wide  range  of  emotion,  but  only 
the  faint  beginnings  of  reason,  has  in  correlation 
therewith  no  religion  at  all.  It  is  significant  that, 
coincidently  with  the  evolution  of  higher  human 


THE    PASSIONAL    AND    RATIONAL    IN    RELIGION       263 

intelligence,  there  should  arise  the  worship  of  the 
invisible.  At  first  the  inherited  capacity  in  man 
for  taking  thought  was  feeble,  while  the  capacity 
for  feeling  and  emotion  was  hereditarily  powerful. 
But  it  is  likely  that  always,  consciously  or  half 
unconsciously,  feeling  posited  premises  in  reason 
even  as  it  does  to-day.1  From  the  earliest  period 
of  purely  animistic  interpretation  of  the  unseen 
and  the  unknown,  to  the  most  modern  elucidation 
of  the  dogmatic  theologies,  reason  has  at  least  been 
a  servant  of  religious  emotion.  And  it  has  been 
most  useful,  not  in  creating  systems  of  religious 
metaphysics  and  philosophy,  but  in  keen  and 
patient  criticism  of  the  materials  which  feeling  and 
emotion  have  often  deposited  in  wild  disorder  at 
its  feet,  and  in  those  careful  inductions  of  fact 
which  have  furnished  the  ground  of  rational  reli- 
gious progress.  Religion  has  always  been  some- 
thing more  than  emotion,  and  as  the  ages  have 
passed  and  the  intelligence  of  man  has  grown  and 
strengthened,  reason  has  become  more  than  a  ser- 
vant. Clear  thinking  and  emotion  are  now  true 
comrades  in  religion. 

In  these  modern  days  religion  is  often  defined  in 
terms  of  love  to  God  and  man.  A  beautiful  illus- 
tration of  the  increasingly  insinuating  influence  of 
intelligence  in  guiding  and  controlling  emotion  is 
found  in  the  history  of  the  impressive  part  which 
reason  played  in  the  birth  of  true  love  in  this 
world.  Love  is  the  outgrowth  of  parental  affec- 

1  Cf.  Brinton,  "  The  Religious  Sentiment,"  p.  87  f. 


264      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

tion,  as  Henry  Drummond  and  John  Fiske  have 
so  brilliantly  shown,  but  there  was  a  considerable 
development  of  intelligence  among  early  humans 
before  parental  affection  was  born.  Mr.  Lester  F. 
Ward  and  Professor  Franklin  H.  Giddings  have  both 
called  our  attention  to  the  possibility  of  explaining 
much  of  mental  evolution  by  the  early  association 
of  men.1  It  was  the  social  life  of  the  early  human 
which  stimulated  the  higher  intellectual  activities, 
the  power  of  sustained  attention,  of  generalization, 
of  judgment.  The  rapid  growth  of  mental  ac- 
tivity in  association  was  paralleled  by  the  rapid 
increase  in  the  complexity  of  brain  and  nervous 
system.  And  it  was  the  consequent  slower  devel- 
opment of  this  delicate  and  intricate  mental  appa- 
ratus which  made  necessary  the  long  period  of 
helplessness  of  the  human  as  distinguished  from 
the  animal  offspring.  A  considerable  measure  of 
human  intelligence  was  antecedent  to  active  paren- 
tal affection. 

Now  primitive  affection  did  not  blossom  into 
love  until  mere  maternity  became  true  motherhood. 
The  human  race  was  long  in  this  world  before  the 
tender  and  unselfish  care  of  children  became  com- 
mon. It  was  not  intelligence  primarily  which  sug- 
gested motherhood  and  laid  the  foundation  of  love. 
Natural  selection  was  fundamental  in  the  process. 
The  tribe  whose  women  showed  the  slightest  vari- 
ation towards  the  domestic  virtues  and  whose  young 
were  consequently  more  tenderly  cared  for,  would 

1  Cf.  the  "  Principles  of  Sociology,"  p.  229,  note  2. 


THE    PASSIONAL    AND    RATIONAL    IN    RELIGION       265 

increase  more  rapidly  in  numbers,  and  would  fare 
better  in  the  stern  struggle  for  existence.  But 
natural  selection  only  pointed  out  the  way.  A 
relatively  strong  human  intelligence,  already  de- 
veloped in  association,  soon  came  to  be  its  cola- 
borer.  Alexander  Bain  has  said  that  the  earliest 
and  most  constant  sign  of  reason  is  working  for 
a  remote  object.  It  must  have  become  increasingly 
evident  to  the  intelligence  of  early  mothers  that 
the  new  self-sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  offspring  was 
worth  while,  not  only  in  the  interest  of  tribal  sur- 
vival, but  also  because  of  the  intense  satisfaction 
which  came  with  the  growth  of  human  love  in  the 
soul.  Natural  selection  and  reason  worked  hand 
in  hand  in  the  development  of  that  highest  human 
affection  which  most  closely  approaches  the  divine. 
There  must  have  been  many  primitive  mothers, 
whose  congenital  tendency  towards  true  maternity 
was  not  yet  strong,  who  made  willing  and  intel- 
ligent choice  of  the  harder  path  of  self-sacrifice 
and  duty  for  the  sake  of  tribe  and  child  and  love. 
Professor  Borden  P.  Bowne,  in  his  criticism  of 
purely  emotional  religion,  has  said  that  love  itself 
abides  in  the  will  rather  than  in  the  feeling,  and 
its  distinguishing  mark  consists  in  the  set  purpose 
to  please  and  to  serve.1  The  statement  is  geneti- 
cally true.  And  the  corollary  thereof  is  equally 
true,  that  love  abides  in  the  intellect  as  really  as  in 
the  will  or  the  affection.  Love  first  manifested  it- 
self in  maternal  self-sacrifice  and  was  at  least  partly 

1  "  The  Christian  Life,"  p.  92. 


266      PRIMITIVE   TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

a  product  of  rational  judgment  and  intelligent  pur- 
pose. That  is,  love  arose  as  the  individualistic 
motives  began  to  be  socialized  and  put  under  the 
control  of  the  reason.  Indeed  the  whole  growth 
of  sympathy  and  of  the  higher  passional  nature  in 
religion  is  almost  directly  proportional  to  the  growth 
of  intelligence.  And  so  even  if  a  man  declare  that 
religion  is  love  and  naught  else,  it  might  be  readily 
shown  that  religious  love,  too,  is  a  complex  passion 
and  arises  as  certainly  out  of  reason  and  volition 
as  out  of  feeling.  Reason  has  always  gone  hand 
in  hand  with  emotion  in  the  development  of  the 
higher  life.  If  it  has  not  had  a  controlling  influ- 
ence, it  has  had  a  modifying  influence.  Emotion 
has  on  the  whole  been  more  powerful  because  it 
has  had  a  far  longer  period  of  animal  and  human 
heredity  behind  it.  Reason  has  functioned  late  in 
animal  and  human  life  and  has  not  yet  come  to 
its  maturity  with  a  great  majority  of  every  popu- 
lation, but  it  has  nevertheless  steadily  strengthened 
its  rule  over  mankind. 

Now  there  have  always  been  those  who  have 
observed  that  reason  is  as  yet  a  comparatively  feeble 
instrument  and  who  have  therefore  ardently  dis- 
credited its  services,  particularly  to  religion.  They 
would  trust  rather  the  instinctive  and  the  emotional, 
which  are  the  older  and  the  tried  faculties  of  the 
human  mind.  But  if  the  truth  were  told,  there  has 
been  in  religious  history  fully  as  great  cause  to 
distrust  emotion.  For  an  unmeasured  period  of 
primeval  time  the  mental  and  spiritual  life  of  man 


THE    PASSIONAL    AND    RATIONAL    IN    RELIGION 

was  clouded  and  distorted  by  the  spectre  of  fear. 
This  dread  emotion  is  not  without  purpose  in  the 
evolutionary  process,  as  has  often  been  shown. 
"  Fear-thought "  was  the  mother  of  forethought 
among  animals  and  men  and  protected  both  against 
enemies  and  against  the  scourges  of  nature.  Not 
even  in  religion  was  early  fear  altogether  an  evil. 
One  calls  to  mind  the  discussions  of  Walter  Bage- 
hot 1  with  respect  to  that  primitive  time  when  the 
human  race  was  soft,  incoherent,  lawless,  unorgan- 
ized, mentally  plastic,  and  needed  the  yoke  of  cus- 
tom to  strengthen  its  fibre.  It  was  the  religion  of 
fear  that  fixed  the  yoke  with  a  sanction  so  awful 
that  none  dared  disobey.  But  it  was  an  experience 
of  nightmare  and  of  horror  nevertheless,  and  many 
peoples  never  escaped  from  the  yoke  into  variation 
and  progress  and  enlightenment.  And  this  is  one 
reason  why  we  have  the  arrested  civilizations  of 
the  world.  Every  one  knows,  too,  that  the  crude 
fear  element  in  religion  lingered  far  into  modern 
life,  long  after  its  usefulness  had  entirely  disap- 
peared. It  was  only  in  the  last  century  that  it 
began  to  fade  out  of  the  religious  life  of  the  most 
highly  civilized  peoples.  We  have  had  abundant 
evidence  in  this  book  of  the  part  it  has  played  in 
the  revivals  of  the  past  in  "  extracting  fruits  for 
repentance."  The  conception  of  a  God  who  would 
consign  men  to  an  everlasting,  torturing  perdition 
has  its  direct,  primitive  ancestor  in  the  conception 
of  the  Fijian  god  who  habitually  devoured  the 

1  "  Physics  and  Politics,"  p.  56  f. 


268       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

souls  of  the  dead.  Hell-fire  torment  and  never 
ending  punishment  are  no  longer  preached  and 
no  longer  believed  by  faithful  and  intelligent  mod- 
ern ministers,  even  by  those  who  do  not  at  all  ac- 
cept in  its  entirety  the  philosophy  of  Universalism. 
Common  sense  and  reason  have  revolted  against 
it.  It  has  had  its  day  in  the  modern  world,  but  it 
was  far  too  long  a  day.  Crude  fear  and  ignorance 
are  twins  of  darkness,  and  when  the  true  light  of 
the  knowledge  of  eternal  things  at  last  floods  the 
earth,  both  flee  away.  But  mankind  was  in  the 
darkness  so  long  before  the  dawn,  that  there  is  an 
immense  amount  of  slumbering  survival  still  in 
every  population.  In  the  presence  of  panic  or 
pestilence  or  premonition  of  impending  doom,  it 
frequently  manifests  itself  with  its  old-time  energy 
of  fury.  Many  a  revival  appeal  has  been  enor- 
mously strengthened  through  the  unconscious  arous- 
ing of  these  sleeping  dogs  of  human  fear.  And 
the  effect  of  this  dread  emotion  in  modern  life  is 
almost  invariably  evil.  It  produces  weakening 
physiological  disturbances  in  assimilation  and  nu- 
trition. The  shock  of  it  causes  dissociation  of  the 
nervous  centres  and  morbid  and  irrational  forms 
of  involuntary  action.  It  puts  an  end  for  the  time 
being  to  the  empire  of  the  will  over  the  muscles, 
and  in  many  cases  permanently  lowers  physical 
and  mental  vitality.  Reason  is  as  powerless  before 
it  as  the  self-controlled  Darwin  was  before  the  puff- 
adder  in  the  London  Zoological  Gardens.  There 
was  a  thick  glass  plate  between  the  scientist  and 


THE    PASSIONAL    AND    RATIONAL    IN    RELIGION       269 

the  adder,  and  he  had  firmly  determined  not  to 
allow  even  a  tremor  if  the  snake  struck  at  him, 
but  the  moment  the  adder  darted  its  head,  his  reso- 
lution went  for  nothing,  and  he  sprang  back  several 
feet1 

But  in  the  face  of  the  havoc  which  fear  has 
wrought  in  the  world,  there  are  not  wanting  even 
now  distinguished  apologists  for  the  application  of 
terror  preaching  and  the  revival  method  to  at  least 
a  certain  type  of  sinner,  the  utterly  wicked,  the 
desperately  vile.  There  are  individuals  who  need 
it  and  who  are  better  for  it,  it  is  said.2  Even  if 
this  were  true,  it  would  not  be  practicable  to 
segregate  these  individuals  from  the  mass  of  their 
fellows,  and  administer  the  emotion  and  the  method 
solely  for  their  benefit.  Certainly  for  society  it  would 
be  far  better  that  these  be  left  to  the  ultra-orthodox 
pains  of  everlasting  death,  or,  more  reasonably,  to 
the  tender  mercies  of  a  Heavenly  Father,  rather 
than  to  foster  permanently  in  our  modern  life  such 
highly  dangerous  forms  of  social  and  religious 

1  "  The   Expression  of  the  Emotions  in  Men   and   Animals," 

P-  38- 

2  For  example,  William  James,  "  The  Varieties  of  Religious  Ex- 
perience," p.  162:  "But  the  deliverance  must  come  in  as  strong 
a  form  as  the  complaint,  if  it  is  to  take  effect  ;    and  that  seems 
a  reason  why  the  coarser  religions  —  revivalistic,  orgiastic,   with 
blood   and  miracles  and  supernatural  operations  —  may  possibly 
never  be  displaced.      Some  constitutions  need  them  too  much." 
Also  p.  333,  op.  cit. :  "  Or  are  different  functions  in  the  organism  of 
humanity  allotted  to  different  types  of  man,  so  that  some  may  really 
be  the  better  for  a  religion  of  consolation  and  reassurance,  while 
others  are  better  for  one  of  terror  and  reproof  ?  " 


2/O      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

procedure.  But  I  am  not  convinced  that  this  is  the 
more  excellent  way  even  with  the  most  hardened 
and  recalcitrant  sinner.  I  think  it  is  the  wide 
experience  of  Dr.  William  S.  Rainsford  with  men 
of  this  character  which  has  led  him  to  a  conclu- 
sion with  which  I  heartily  concur.  "  Terror  at  its 
worst  cannot  make  men  hate  sin,  though  it  may 
now  and  then  frighten  a  man  from  sin  —  a  sin  that, 
even  as  he  leaves,  he  loves.  But  the  knowledge 
that  he  is  causing  pain  to  some  one  else  can  make 
a  man  not  only  hate  sin,  but  finally  turn  from  it 
forever."  l  For  good  or  ill  the  thunder  and  the 
gloom  of  Sinai  have  given  place  in  religion  to  the 
sunlight  and  the  beauty  of  Calvary.  And  that  it  is 
so  is  no  doubt  well.  It  is  in  line  with  all  mental 
evolution  and  social  progress.  The  whip  of  fear  is 
put  aside.  It  is  not  for  free  men,  but  for  cowards 
and  for  slaves.  And  it  is  more  and  more  com- 
ing to  be  seen  that  it  is  the  supreme  function  of 
religion  to  develop  and  strengthen  men  both  brave 
and  free. 

Of  course  my  reader  understands  that  it  is  of 
crude,  irrational  fear  that  I  have  been  speaking. 
But  instinctive  emotion  is  never  wholly  wrong,  is 
never  wholly  displaced.  It  may  well  be  that  in 
this  time  of  revolt  and  of  fierce  reaction  against  a 
conception  of  God  that  erred  widely  from  the 
truth,  the  pendulum  has  swung  too  far.  I  think  it 
is  so.  Side  by  side  with  the  preaching  and  the 
teaching  of  the  love  of  the  Heavenly  Father  we 
1  In  a  little  book,  "  Good  Friday  Meditation." 


THE    PASSIONAL    AND    RATIONAL    IN    RELIGION       27! 

need  a  sterner  emphasis  than  of  recent  times  upon 
the  essential  justice  of  the  universe  and  of  law 
and  of  God — that  punishment  does  not  await  the 
verdict  of  an  eternal  assize,  but  that  every  hour  of 
his  life  a  man  is  at  the  judgment  seat,  and  every 
day  he  lays  up  penalty  in  character. 

Not  alone  fear,  but  other  forms  of  intense 
emotion  are  destructive  of  the  higher  life.  This 
is  particularly  true  of  the  feelings  aroused  by  a 
highly  vivid  and  unrestrained  religious  imagination. 
When  reason  is  not  strong  enough  to  subdue  the 
colors,  to  sift  the  images,  to  criticise  the  visions, 
doctrine  and  practice  speedily  reach  a  dangerous 
extreme.  Jonathan  Edwards,  psychologist,  was 
profoundly  aware  of  it,  and  therefore  spoke  of  the 
imagination,  it  will  be  remembered,  as  "  the  devil's 
lurking  place,  the  very  nest  of  foul  and  delusive 
spirits."  And  the  "  affection "  aroused  through 
the  imagination  and  built  upon  it  instead  of  upon 
"  spiritual  illumination  or  discovery  "  he  believed  to 
be  worthless  and  vain,  however  elevated.  "  Like 
imperfect  sleep,"  said  Saint  Teresa,  "  which  in- 
stead of  giving  more  strength  to  the  head  doth  but 
leave  it  the  more  exhausted,  the  result  of  mere 
operations  of  the  imagination  is  but  to  weaken  the 
soul."  Now  the  revival  of  the  past  is  responsible 
for  the  purposive  cultivation  of  much  of  this  sort 
of  imagery  and  consequent  violent  but  irrational 
emotion.  The  exaggerated  descriptions  of  hell 
and  heaven,  of  death-bed  scenes  and  the  judgment, 
have  encouraged  in  multitudes  of  minds  the  bane- 


2/2       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

ful  tendency  to  exalt  the  figure  above  the  fact,  the 
picture  above  the  thought.  Revival  crowds  have 
far  too  frequently  been  encouraged  to  drift  in  the 
current  of  dream  and  ecstasy  upon  the  rocks  of 
frothy  and  spurious  emotion.  Image  and  vision 
have  been  cherished  for  their  own  sake  and  not 
for  any  higher  purpose,  and  the  immediate  and 
permanent  effect  has  been  not  only  to  enfeeble 
the  nervous  system,  but  also  the  will  and  the  soul. 
The  resulting  emotion  has  been  little  more  than 
religious  intoxication.  This  is  an  illegitimate  use 
of  the  imagination  which  can  be  kept  within 
bounds  only  by  the  stern  criticism  and  control  of  the 
rational  judgment. 

But  neither  fear  nor  these  merely  sensuous  feel- 
ings of  which  I  have  just  spoken  are  the  whole 
of  religious  emotion.  And  there  are  many  who 
would  distrust  these  baser  forms  who  would  still  in 
general  have  confidence  in  the  passional  nature 
rather  than  the  rational.  They  would  maintain 
that  the  propensity  to  scale  the  frosty  peaks  of 
reason  is  indicative  of  a  cold,  calculating,  selfish 
individuality,  that  a  man  is  not  at  his  best  until  he 
is  flooded  by  high  emotion.  Warnings  against  the 
intellect  frequently  appear  in  contemporary  ecclesi- 
astical writings,  and  the  more  conservative  section 
of  the  religious  press  and  of  the  pulpit  often  rep- 
resents itself  as  an  enemy  to  the  extended  use  of 
reason  in  the  spiritual  realm.  They  agree,  as 
Francis  Bacon  did,  with  the  heathen  in  the  fable 
of  the  golden  chain  that  judgment  is  not  safe  in 


THE    PASSIONAL    AND    RATIONAL    IN    RELIGION       2/3 

this  sacred  sphere.     They  are  at  one  with  Dryden 
in  his  poem  on  the  religion  of  a  layman :  — 

"  Dim  as  the  borrowed  beams  of  moon  and  stars 
To  lonely,  weary,  wandering  travellers, 
Is  reason  to  the  soul." 

The  fair  mysticism  of  Clough  is  their  refuge :  — 

"  Away,  haunt  thou  not  me, 
Thou  vain  philosophy. 
Little  hast  thou  bestead. 
Save  to  perplex  the  head, 
And  leave  the  spirit  dead. 
*  *  *  *  * 

Why  labor  at  the  dull  mechanic  oar, 
When  the  fresh  breeze  is  blowing, 
And  the  strong  current  flowing, 
Right  onward  to  the  eternal  shore  ?" 

No  matter  what  exact  form  this  philosophy  may 
take,  the  underlying  theory  always  is  that  the 
passional  is  the  peculiar  channel  of  divine  com- 
munication. It  is  a  dangerous  doctrine.  Even 
the  partial  acceptance  of  it  drove  so  skilful  a  pro- 
tagonist as  Jonathan  Edwards  into  a  theological 
cul-de-sac  from  which  he  never  extricated  himself. 
"  Assuming,  as  he  did,  that  the  action  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  revival  was  extraordinary,  manifested 
in  bodily  effects,  and  always  distinguishable  from 
human  activity,  he  was  obliged  to  admit  that  the 
tendency  of  this  divine  action  was  to  excite  inclina- 
tions which  if  gratified  would  lead  to  confusion. 
Human  judgment  and  discretion  must  therefore 
come  to  the  rescue,  in  order  to  prevent  the  un' 


2/4      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

limited  influence  of  the  divine."  l  But  Edwards' 
practical  sense  served  him  well,  though  it  played 
havoc  with  his  theology.  Human  emotion  is 
deeper  and  older  than  human  judgment  and  dis- 
cretion, but  not  on  that  account  more  divine.  Hu- 
man passion  and  impulsive  action  need  constant 
curbing  by  human  forethought  and  prudence. 
The  safer  doctrine  is  that  neither  the  passional  nor 
the  rational  is  the  channel  of  special  supernatural 
communication,  or  else  that  both  are,  through  a 
real  though  insensible  union  of  divine  influence 
with  the  human  at  the  springs  of  action.  It  is  a 
shallow  religious  philosophy  that  is  able  to  trace 
the  supernatural  in  the  "  affections,"  but  cannot 
trace  at  least  dawning  divinity  in  the  developing 
reason  of  mankind. 

If  there  is  any  test  of  the  divine  in  human  life, 
it  is  not  feeling,  it  is  conduct.  This  has  been  re- 
peated of  ten,  but  there  is  little  present  danger  of  its 
becoming  trite  in  practice,  however  it  may  be  in 
speech.  Action  that  is  true  and  beautiful  and 
good  can  make  impressive  its  claim  to  divinity  as 
mere  feeling  never  can.  The  power  to  become 
the  sons  of  God  is  evidenced  not  chiefly  by  emo- 
tion, however  pure,  but  by  straight  thinking  and 
right  living. 

I  have  no  inclination  to  overstate  the  case  for 
the  human  intellect.  The  capacity  for  taking 
thought  and  consciously  adjusting  one's  self  to  facts 
—  which  is  the  essence  of  reason  —  unfolds  slowly 

1  Allen,  "  Jonathan  Edwards,"  p.  208. 


THE    PASSIONAL    AND    RATIONAL    IN    RELIGION        275 

with  the  progress  of  the  race  in  knowledge  and 
experience.  Errors  of  thought  are  frequently  as 
profound  as  errors  of  emotion.  The  forms  of  logic 
are  vain  things  for  safety  if  the  premises  be 'un- 
true. Even  in  the  scientific  stage  of  its  develop- 
ment, reason  is  far  from  being  the  perfect  tool 
which  it  is  often  represented  to  be.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  absolute  accuracy  of  observation. 
The  statistical  average  of  observations  is  the  near- 
est we  can  come  to  it.  Scientific  induction  begins 
with  a  guess  and  sometimes  ends  with  one.  And 
scientific  dogmatism  is  no  better  than  any  other 
kind.  But,  nevertheless,  as  knowledge  and  expe- 
rience have  grown  and  reason  has  become  mature, 
the  rational  has  steadily  reached  towards  the  head- 
ship in  human  life.  And  the  evidence  of  the  inner 
emotional  consciousness  is  the  safer  when  searched 
through  and  through  by  the  inner  light  of  reason, 
and  the  evidence  of  both  is  surer  when  tested 
objectively  and  scientifically  by  the  evidence  of 
external  nature. 

It  becometh  not  religion  to  disparage  reason. 
She  owes  too  great  a  debt  to  it.  Theology  is  of 
course  only  the  philosophy  of  religion,  but  Chris- 
tian theology  is  reasonable.  It  has  no  other  claim 
upon  the  attention  of  men.  Christianity  has  never 
been  simply  emotional  fervor,  much  less  mere 
fanaticism  or  superstition.  From  Origen  to  Har- 
nack  it  has  vindicated  its  right  to  exist  by  tri- 
umphant intellectual  appeal.  And  even  when  men 
have  fought  like  mental  gladiators  for  conceptions 


2/6       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

of  God  and  the  universe  which  were  utterly  errone- 
ous and  which  have  passed  away,  the  tonic  effect 
of  it  upon  social  as  well  as  religious  progress  has 
been  immeasurable.  The  Calvinistic  pulpits  of 
early  New  England  established  not  only  the  Puri- 
tan conscience,  but  the  critical  Puritan  intelligence, 
and  both  have  been  exceedingly  important  factors, 
and  will  ever  be,  in  the  political  and  social  evolu- 
tion of  America.  The  despised  husks  of  theology 
have  many  times  proved  strongly  nutritive  for  the 
mental  life  of  a  people,  and  the  mastication  thereof 
has  had  momentous  reactions  upon  religion.  Since 
the  century  of  the  Protestant  Reformation,  discus- 
sions about  civil  liberty  and  discussions  about  re- 
ligious faith  and  freedom  have  gone  on  together, 
and  have  sounded  the  death  knell  of  political  and 
ecclesiastical  dogmatism  at  the  same  time.  It  is 
the  modern  age  of  rationality  which  has  been  the 
champion  of  the  individual  rights  of  the  human 
soul  in  both  these  fields  of  human  thinking  and 
activity.  The  polity  of  discussion,  as  Bagehot 
calls  it,  is  at  the  root  of  modern  progress. 

Within  the  sphere  of  creed  and  doctrine,  reason 
is  the  element  which  has  given  growth  and  vitality. 
Genetically,  belief  is  a  product  of  emotion,  and 
many  a  religious  dogma  has  had  little  truth  or 
knowledge  at  its  foundation.  There  are  beliefs 
most  dear  to  us  and  most  necessary  to  happiness 
and  sanity  in  living  which  reason  has  never  been 
able  either  to  demonstrate  or  to  destroy.  But  there 
have  been  others  which  the  rational  sense  of  man- 


THE    PASSIONAL    AND    RATIONAL    IN    RELIGION 

kind  has  justly  criticised  into  decay,  and  in  many 
instances  scepticism  of  the  nobler  sort  has  sifted 
and  clarified  belief  and  made  it  a  far  better  instru- 
ment of  religious  propagandism.  The  church  plays 
no  fitting  part  if  she  attempts  to  thwart  honest 
doubt  and  inquiry  and  discussion.  They  are  the 
breath  of  life  to  her  in  the  modern  world.  It  will 
never  do  for  the  church  to  preach  psychical  degen- 
eration while  science  is  perfecting  the  reason.  A 
contest  of  that  sort  would  be  very  unequal,  for 
science  would  have  the  whole  course  of  mental 
evolution  on  her  side.  It  will  be  well  for  religion 
if  in  the  future  we  shall  hear  less  of  "  barren  in- 
tellectualism  "  and  more  of  the  spiritual  duty  of 
mental  growth. 

The  dominance  of  the  rational  will  not  mean  the 
death  of  religion,  as  M.  Vacherot  and  Professor 
Ribot  and  other  distinguished  thinkers  would  have 
us  believe.1  Theoretic  faith  and  formalism  and 
spiritual  deadness  arise  through  conceit  of  the 
understanding  and  not  through  a  wise  and  humble 

1  Cf.  M.  Vacherot,  "  La  Religion,"  pp.  313,  436,  passim  :  "  Re- 
ligion answers  to  a  transient  state  or  condition,  not  to  a  permanent 
determination  of  human  nature,  being  merely  an  expression  of  that 
stage  of  the  human  mind  which  is  dominated  by  the  imagination." 
Also  Ribot,  "Psychologic  des  Sentiments,"  p.  310:  "Of  religious 
sentiment,  properly  so  called,  nothing  survives  at  last  but  a  vague 
respect  for  the  unknowable  X  which  is  a  last  relic  of  the  fear,  and 
a  certain  attraction  towards  the  ideal  which  is  a  relic  of  the  love, 
that  characterized  the  earlier  periods  of  religious  growth.  To  state 
this  more  simply,  religion  tends  to  turn  into  religious  philosophy." 
Both  quoted  in  James,  "The  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience,'1 
p.  502. 


2/8       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

use  of  that  important  faculty  of  the  soul.  Imagi- 
nation and  feeling  will  never  be  suppressed  in 
religion  any  more  than  in  the  total  mental  life. 
They  are  both  valuable  products  of  the  evolution- 
ary process,  and  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  an 
environment,  terrestrial  or  heavenly,  in  which  they 
would  not  have  utility  and  to  which  they  would  not 
have  adaptation.  But  they  do  need  to  be  guided 
and  chastened  by  the  criticisms  and  inhibitions  of 
higher  faculties  than  themselves. 

The  passional  in  religion  will  never  be  over- 
thrown. Even  the  primitive  and  instinctive  emo- 
tions themselves  do  not  perish ;  they  are  only 
rationalized  and  socialized.  New  and  character- 
istic emotions  of  the  intellectual  life  appear.  In 
the  future,  as  in  the  past,  we  shall  be  moved  to 
action  by  aroused  feeling.  It  will  be  as  true  as 
ever  in  the  religious  life  that  men  will  be  stirred 
again  and  again  to  the  depths  of  their  souls,  and 
the  baser  obstructions  and  impediments  to  the 
highest  usefulness  will  frequently  be  swept  away 
as  by  a  flood.  But  there  is  an  emotional  phi- 
losophy which  has  had  its  day.  This  is  its  poetic 
embodiment :  — 

"  If  his  heart  at  high  flood  swamp  his  brain  now  and  then 
'Twill  be  richer  for  that  when  the  tide  ebbs  again." 

That  is  true  Celtic  philosophy,  and  it  has  made 
the  original  Celtic  strain  what  it  is  to-day,  a  beau- 
tiful and  highly  valuable  element  in  the  life  of 
another  people,  but  having  no  practical  sense  of 


THE    PASSIONAL    AND    RATIONAL    IN    RELIGION       2/9 

headship  of  its  own.  It  is  the  function  of  the 
blood  to  enrich,  but  not  to  swamp,  the  brain.  Emo- 
tion may  sweep  away  the  baser  inhibitions  which 
beset  a  man,  but  it  should  never  sweep  away  that 
climax  product  of  the  mental  life,  the  capacity 
to  reflect  between  stimulation  and  action  and  the 
power  to  apply  all  the  knowledge  and  experience 
which  the  individual  possesses  in  that  critical 
period  of  decision. 

It  is  idle  to  argue  which  we  could  better  do  with- 
out, the  passional  or  the  rational  in  religion.  As 
well  dispute  the  steady  and  permanent  helpfulness 
of  the  White  Nile,  which  flows  the  year  round  from 
the  chain  of  Nyanza  lakes,  because  in  its  season 
the  Blue  Nile,  swollen  and  muddy,  comes  to  the 
rescue  freighted  with  the  rich  soil  of  the  Abyssin- 
ian mountains.  The  land  of  Egypt  in  our  day 
could  ill  afford  the  loss  of  either.  As  well  dispute 
whether  the  furnace  or  the  helm  is  most  essential 
in  the  ocean  steamer.  But  if  it  is  the  question  of 
which  shall  be  trusted  as  a  guide  to  port,  reason 
ever  more  tends  to  become  the  rudder  of  human 
life. 

I  would  take  straightforward  issue  with  those 
who  still  hold  that  the  subconscious,  the  imperfectly 
rational,  the  mystically  emotional,  in  spite  of  all 
its  vagaries,  is,  par  excellence,  the  channel  of  the 
inflow  of  divine  life.  I  realize  that  I  am  at  this 
point  running  counter  to  the  philosophic  "perhaps  " 
of  that  distinguished  psychologist,  Professor  Will- 
iam James,  in  his  splendid  inductive  study  of  the 


28O      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

varieties  of  religious  experience.  As  a  static  in- 
vestigation of  religious  types,  I  know  none  that 
is  superior.  But  Professor  James'  "twice  born" 
people,  with  their  impulses  and  impressions,  their 
visions,  their  hallucinations,  their  divided  purposes, 
their  strange  subliminal  incubations  suddenly  burst- 
ing into  consciousness,  their  sense  of  impotence  in 
the  hour  of  decision  and  their  tendency  to  abject 
self-surrender,  are  a  human  type  on  its  way  to  per- 
fection. A  careful  dynamic  study  would  find  them 
to  be  mentally  immature,  rationally  and  volitionally 
imperfect,  and  I,  for  one,  cannot  believe  that  the 
feet  of  the  supernatural  deliberately  choose  to  tread 
the  slime  of  the  subliminal,  the  lower  mystical 
marsh  lands  of  the  human  spirit,  while  avoiding 
the  sunlit  hills  of  full  rational  consciousness.  It  is 
far  easier  to  believe  that  the  influence  of  the  divine 
is  increasingly  evident  in  the  whole  process  of 
mental  evolution. 

Just  as  the  struggle  for  the  life  of  others  comes 
to  control  the  struggle  for  life,  but  so  that  neither 
influence  is  lost  to  human  progress  ;  just  as  altruism 
everywhere  displaces  crude  force  and  yet  has  its 
root  in  the  physiological  vigor  of  the  early  conflict ; 
so  the  instinctive  and  emotional  in  religion  give 
way  to  the  rule  of  the  rational,  but  never  to  the 
destruction  of  that  which  is  primary  and  funda- 
mental. For  the  truly  rational  life  is  not  only  a 
thoroughly  ethical  life,  which  is  usually  taken  for 
granted,  but  it  is  also  a  profoundly  passional  life. 
The  deepest  emotion  is  usually  under  the  control 


THE    PASSIONAL    AND    RATIONAL    IN    RELIGION       28l 

of  the  reason.  The  juror  who  holds  himself  firm 
against  the  fervid  appeal  of  the  defendant's  attor- 
ney because  of  the  sense  of  responsibility  he  has 
for  the  welfare  of  the  community  and  for  the 
supremacy  of  law  probably  has  the  capacity  for 
far  greater  sympathy  with  the  prisoner  at  the  bar 
than  the  juror  who  weakly  and  tearfully  yields  to 
the  appeal. 

In  full  maturity  the  rational  and  the  mystical 
dwell  together  in  the  same  spirit,  but  ever  so  that 
the  latter  is  undergirded  and  guided  by  the  for- 
mer. There  is  a  lofty  mysticism,  chastened  by  the 
critical  habit,  of  which  one  may  speak  only  with 
the  deepest  respect.  It  was  a  quality  of  Beecher, 
of  Brooks,  of  Martineau,  and  of  those  terrible 
mystics,  the  Puritans.  The  practical  reason  was 
strong  in  these  men,  but  nevertheless  they  refused 
to  shut  themselves  up  to  the  testimony  of  the 
senses.  They  possessed  and  they  cultivated  an 
inner  consciousness  of  things  which  eye  had  not 
seen  nor  ear  heard.  This  perfect  fusing  of  the 
two  chief  mental  traits  in  the  same  nature  is  the 
real  climax  of  mind.  If  either  be  bred  out  or 
atrophied,  there  is  something  lacking  which  the 
course  of  mental  evolution  should  have  made 
permanent  in  a  man. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

AN   APPLICATION   TO    THE   UNITED    STATES,    AND 
OTHER    CONCLUSIONS 

THE  revival  method  has  normally  been  one  in 
which  feeling  is  dominant  in  mass  and  in  Control. 
The  great  religious  revivals  have  been  intensely  emo- 
tional in  character.  The  best  of  them  have  been 
saved  in  a  measure  from  extreme  excesses  by  the 
rational  guidance  of  highly  gifted  and  well-balanced 
men  of  the  type  of  Wesley  and  Edwards.  In  all  of 
them  there  have  been  many  genuine  changes  of 
moral  nature.  The  records  abound  with  examples 
of  persons  who  were  living  in  open  wickedness  or  in 
intellectual  disbelief  or  in  absolute  indifference  to 
higher  ethical  and  religious  things,  who  were  sud- 
denly brought,  under  the  influence  of  the  revival 
wave  of  emotion  and  appeal,  to  the  point  of  men- 
tal and  moral  transformation  with  respect  to  the 
whole  subject.  And  in  a  multitude  of  cases  the 
change  of  attitude  was  permanent.  These  facts 
are  of  profound  importance  and  no  doubt  deserve 
the  somewhat  exclusive  attention  which  they  have 
received  from  religious  historians.  The  question 
of  the  great  value  of  many  revivals  to  particular 
individuals  is  not  especially  raised  in  this  book. 

282 


AN   APPLICATION    TO   THE    UNITED    STATES      283 

It  has  hitherto  received  its  meed  of  analysis  and 
discussion.  But  most  of  the  examples,  both  of 
temporary  and  permanent  transformation,  do 
afford  to  the  observer  of  social  phenomena  sub- 
stantial evidence  of  the  higR  development  of  im- 
pulsive personal  action  in  the  revival.  It  is  not 
a  movement  of  deliberation^  of  criticism,  but  of 
feeling  and  of  impulse.  And  that  has  always 
been  its  weakness  and  its  danger.  It  has  fre- 
quently led  to  unholy  excesses  of  excitement,  to 
merely  sterile  emotion,  to  the  primitive,  and  often 
to  the  pathological.  Under  its  influence  men  have 
too  often  yielded,  not  to  the  higher  motives,  but 
to  the  lower.  Far  too  frequently  they  have  been 
moved,  not  by  intelligent  insight  into  the  evil  of 
their  ways,  not  by  a  sense  of  unworthiness  and 
sin,  not  by  true  volitional  action  towards  a  new 
and  higher  life,  but  by  fear,  by  suggestion,  by  imi- 
tation, by  social  pressure,  by  a  flood  of  feeling 
overwhelming  the  higher  cerebral  process. 

It  is  a  grave  error  to  think  that  you  can  touch  the 
sensibilities  alone  and  have  any  appreciable  effect 
upon  the  conscience  and  the  character.  You  must 
touch  the  intellect  as  well,  and  primarily.  There 
is  a  necessary  crudeness  about  religious  groups 
that  are  built  up  by  the  emotional  revival  method 
unless  there  follows  a  most  careful  and  intelligent 
training  in  true  piety  in  order  to  establish  what  the 
pure  revival  movement  cannot  give,  an  equilibrium 
of  character.  Emotional  devoutness  leads  easily  to 
fanaticism.  "  Holiness  "  experts  and  professors 


284      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

of  entire  sanctification  are  notoriously  hard  to  get 
on  with.  They  are  the  real  spiritual  defectives 
and  not  their  fellow-members  of  the  church  at 
whom  they  often  rail  accusingly.  We  have  seen 
this  moral  egotism  cropping  out  in  our  inductive 
studies  more  than  once.  It  is  always  a  product  of 
moral  passion  uncontrolled  by  common  sense  and 
reason.  The  emotional  revival  fosters  it,  some- 
times in  persons  who  would  not  otherwise  be  sub- 
ject to  it.  William  Tennent  read  a  paper  before 
the  synod  of  Philadelphia  in  1740  to  prove  that 
many  of  his  fellow-ministers  were  "  rotten-hearted 
hypocrites."  William  Tennent  would  not  have  done 
this  except  under  the  pressure  of  revival  passion. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  Whitefield  in  New 
England  became  censorious  to  a  degree.  But  this 
was  not  natural  to  Whitefield.  Davenport  culti- 
vated this  spirit  in  Connecticut  to  the  point  of 
insanity,  but  the  demon  left  him  to  shame  and 
contrition  when  the  gust  of  overpowering  religious 
excitement  had  ceased  to  blow. 

The  emotional  revival  has  never  taken  into 
account  the  proper  function  of  the  will  in  conver- 
sion. Emphasis  has  been  most  unfortunately  laid 
upon  impulsive  and  mystical  self-surrender.  Men 
and  women  have  been  urged  to  become  as  "  drift 
logs  on  the  current  of  divine  purpose,"  as  "  nothing 
in  the  floods  and  water  spouts  of  God."  They  must 
"  surrender  all,"  their  intellect,  their  talents,  their 
social  pleasures.  One  evangelist  has  been  in  the 
habit  of  relating  to  great  audiences  of  young  people 


AN    APPLICATION    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES       28$ 

the  story  of  a  friend  of  his,  "  a  master  and  lover  of 
Greek."  On  his  conversion  he  gave  up  all,  and 
the  last  to  go  was  his  Greek,  but  he  let  that  go  too  ! 
There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  this,  and  the  sug- 
gestion of  abject  surrender  has  been  potent  in 
professed  conversions  just  because  it  fits  so  beauti- 
fully a  type  of  mind  that  is  very  common  in  every 
population.  There  are  large  numbers  of  persons 
whose  rational  and  volitional  processes  are  so  imper- 
fectly under  control  that  when  they  attempt  to  use 
them  in  time  of  religious  storm  and  stress,  or  at  any 
other  time  of  great  emotional  agitation  for  that  mat- 
ter, they  fail  utterly.  Blackness  and  darkness  and 
tempest  and  the  sound  of  a  trumpet  and  the  voice 
of  words  is  the  only  response.  They  are  plunged 
more  deeply  than  ever  into  fear  and  perplexity 
and  gloom.  The  lower  cerebral  processes  will  not 
work  in  harness  with  the  higher.  It  is  only  when 
they  cease  to  think  and  cease  to  will  and  cast 
themselves  unreservedly  into  the  current  of  the 
subconscious  and  mystical  in  their  natures  that 
they  find  relief.  And  your  professional  revivalist, 
though  not  a  trained  psychologist,  has  had  a  very 
practical  experience  with  the  mental  life  of  congre- 
gations. He  knows  what  his  crude  methods  will 
accomplish  with  this  type.  A  suggestion  of  the 
impotence  of  the  human  will,  of  the  power  that 
comes  through  complete  surrender,  an  explosion 
of  the  ice-jam  at  the  heart  through  the  dynamite 
of  emotion,  and  you  get  your  result.  And  some- 
times it  has  been  a  helpful  result  religiously  to 


286       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

the  individual.  There  are  many  who  have  dated 
their  spiritual  birthday  from  such  an  experience. 
But  there  are  also  many,  the  record  of  whom  has 
not  been  so  carefully  kept,  who  have  been  spiritu- 
ally injured  for  time  if  not  for  eternity  by  this 
process.  And  there  is  a  grave  social  danger  in 
such  a  method  of  training  large  elements  in  a  popu- 
lation. The  man  who  yields  unquestioningly  and 
uncritically  to  impassioned  appeal  in  the  crisis  hour 
of  his  religious  life  will  do  it  in  the  crisis  hour  of 
his  political  life.  And  that  is  the  vice  of  democ- 
racy. 

The  type  who  yield  impulsively  in  a  revival  are 
they  in  whom  the  higher  cerebral  processes  are 
imperfectly  organized.  They  do  better  when  the 
simpler  automatic  cerebral  centres  are  allowed  to 
act  freely.  But  it  is  not  a  type  to  be  encouraged 
or  strengthened  in  a  population.  It  is  not  only 
better  for  society,  but  for  men's  own  souls,  that 
they  should  employ  all  their  wit  and  will  in  the 
struggle  for  the  higher  life.  Though  they  fail, 
they  are  in  the  hands  of  an  all-seeing  and  merciful 
God. 

Impulsive  self -surrender  is  injurious  to  a  whole- 
some and  normal  religious  experience.  It  was  not 
cultivated  by  the  great  Head-Master  of  Christian- 
ity. "  If  any  man  will  to  do  my  will,"  said  Christ, 
"  he  shall  know  the  doctrine."  It  was  this  method 
which  gave  spiritual  birth  and  nurture  to  Abraham 
Lincoln  in  the  darkest  hours  of  the  civil  war.  And 
it  is  the  only  ideal  method.  Any  other  but  turns 


AN    APPLICATION    TO   THE    UNITED   STATES      28/ 

the  world  of  religion  and  politics  alike  over  to  the 
rule  of  the  subconscious  and  the  passional. 

Deliberative  self-devotion  is  quite  another  matter. 
Whether  it  characterize  the  lover,  the  patriot  or 
the  Christian  disciple,  it  is  rational  and  sound  in 
psychology  and  in  life.  It  is  self  surrender,  but  of 
the  higher  kind.  The  man  is  conscious  that  he 
has  his  hand  on  the  windlass  as  he  lowers  the 
boat  into  the  sea.  The  element  of  value  in  the 
baser  sort  of  surrender  survives  in  an  attitude  of 
mind.  Huxley  has  likened  the  sitting  down  before 
a  fact  as  a  little  child,  of  being  prepared  to  give  up 
every  preconceived  notion  in  its  presence,  to  the 
truth  embodied  in  the  Christian  conception  of  sur- 
render to  the  will  of  God.1  And  there  is  worth  in 
the  figure  and  in  the  comparison.  The  spirit  of 
simply,  humbly  following  where  truth  and  fact  in 
nature  and  experience  shall  lead  is  the  beginning 
of  wisdom  in  both  science  and  religion.  Your 
proud,  self-sufficient  intellectualist  goes  as  far 
astray  religiously  as  his  impulsive  brother  at  the 
opposite  mental  pole.  There  are  very  few  well- 
balanced  men  who  do  not  at  one  time  or  another  in 
their  careers  come  to  the  point  where  Toplady's 
imagery  means  something  to  their  searching  and 
perplexed  spirits  :  — 

"  Rock  of  Ages,  cleft  for  me, 
Let  me  hide  myself  in  thee." 

It  is  coming  to  be  clearly  seen  that  the  old-time 

1  "  Life  and  Letters,"  Vol.  I,  p.  235. 


288       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

revival  method  is  pedagogically  vicious  for  the 
religious  culture  of  children.  In  many  respects 
children  are  little  primitive  people  brought  down 
to  date.  It  will  not  do  to  carry  the  analogy  too 
far,  for  the  environment  of  feeling,  of  intelligence, 
of  conduct,  as  manifested  in  the  elders  of  the  com- 
munity, and  the  environment  of  nature,  too,  is  very 
different  for  the  modern  child  from  that  in  which 
the  primitive  races  lived.  But  in  important  ways 
the  mental  life  of  childhood  and  youth  does  re- 
produce with  singular  exactness  the  whole  course 
of  mental  evolution  in  the  race.  The  little  fellow 
on  the  floor  with  his  toys  has  in  him  more  than  we 
like  to  admit  of  the  crude  selfishness  of  the  savage, 
and  the  real  social  instinct  of  sympathy  and  help- 
fulness and  self-sacrifice,  which  is  potentially 
present  in  him,  develops  slowly  through  thwarted 
effort  and  disappointment  and  the  necessity  for 
comfort  and  guidance  and  many  another  experi- 
ence, sweet  and  bitter,  all  the  way  along.  He  is 
peculiarly  susceptible  to  the  primitive  emotion  of 
fear,  and  one  of  the  crudest  things  in  the  world  is 
to  instil  into  his  plastic  mind  the  image  of  it. 
Senseless  stories  of  the  hobgoblin,  the  bogey-man 
and  the  witch  may  remain  to  torture  him  for  years. 
The  shock  of  a  frightful  dream  has  been  known  to 
plunge  normal  children  into  epileptic  fits,  just 
because  the  dream  is  so  extremely  real  to  the 
impressionable  little  brain.1  The  child  has  the 
capacity  for  far  more  intensely  vivid  imagination 

1  Cf.  Angelo  Mosso,  "  Fear,"  p.  226  f. 


AN    APPLICATION    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES       289 

than  the  full-grown  man  or  woman  just  because 
of  his  plastic  and  undeveloped  mental  and  nervous 
organization.  Fact  and  fancy  frequently  blend  in 
one  for  him  as  they  do  for  primitive  man.  He  is 
highly  imitative  and  suggestible.  Inacrowd  of  other 
children  he  will  mechanically  yield  his  little  will  to 
any  trusted  leader.  A  friend  of  mine  once  experi- 
mented with  an  infant  Sunday-school  by  requesting 
all  those  who  were  sure  that  nobody  could  be  saved 
who  did  not  believe  that  Isaiah  wrote  the  whole  of 
the  book  bearing  his  name,  to  lift  up  their  hands  — 
and  every  hand  went  up.  An  elderly  gentleman 
whom  I  once  knew  said  to  his  little  granddaughter, 
"  Would  you  like  to  have  grandpa  take  you  out  into 
the  woods  to  hear  the  birds  sing  ? "  And  she 
answered,  "  Yes."  And  he  said,  "  Would  you  like 
to  go  out  into  the  woods  and  see  a  man  cut  grand- 
pa's head  off  ?"  And  she  said,  "  Yes." 

The  experience  and  environment  and  mental  or- 
ganization of  the  child  are  relatively  simple,  as 
with  the  savage.  In  an  assembly  of  his  kind  he 
yields  to  excitement,  to  hypnotic  personal  pressure, 
to  a  vivid  idea,  with  the  most  unconscious  readiness. 
To  employ  upon  these  delicate  and  impressionable 
little  beings  any  of  the  crude  machinery  of  a  revival 
is  an  unseemly  perversion  of  pedagogical  principle 
and  a  trespass  upon  the  rights  of  childhood. 

It  seems  to  be  determined  that  the  high  tide 
of  adolescence,  immediately  following  the  age  of 
puberty,  is  exceedingly  favorable  to  revival  conver- 
sion. It  had  long  been  a  matter  of  observation, 


2QO       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

before  any  thorough  scientific  studies  were  made, 
that  youth  is  preeminently  the  time  of  accessions 
to  the  church.  All  denominations  have  sought  to 
make  adolescence  fruitful  in  additions  to  member- 
ship, and  the  revival  churches  in  particular  have 
regarded  this  period  as  peculiarly  auspicious  for 
their  labors.  Contrary  to  a  somewhat  widespread 
opinion,  the  employment  of  the  emotional  method 
in  conversion  even  at  this  advanced  stage  of  early 
life  is  fraught  with  grave  danger.  The  high  tide 
of  adolescence  is  noteworthy  in  at  least  three  re- 
spects— for  the  extraordinary  development  of  the 
capacity  for  sentiment  and  emotion,  for  the  emer- 
gence in  strength  of  the  sexual  passion  and  for 
marked  ethical  and  religious  storm  and  stress.  It 
is  a  period  characterized  particularly  in  females  by 
a  tendency  to  overcbnscientiousness,  apprehension, 
morbidity  and  hysteria.  It  is  a  time  when  there  is 
needed  the  most  delicately  skilful  ethical  and 
spiritual  training  of  which  parents  and  churches 
are  capable.  It  is  true  that  the  mental  and  moral 
temper  of  adolescence  lends  itself  readily  to  the 
excitement  of  revival,  but  it  is  also  true  that  such 
a  form  of  religious  persuasion  is  extra-hazardous 
at  this  stage  of  human  life.  The  sudden  increase 
of  emotion  needs  to  be  met  with  the  calmness  of 
rational  control.  It  is  no  time  for  the  shock  of 
fear  or  the  agony  of  remorse.  The  only  result 
of  such  misguided  religious  zeal  is  likely  to  be  a 
strengthening  in  many  cases  of  those  tendencies, 
especially  in  females,  towards  morbidity  and  hys- 
teria, towards  darkness  and  doubt. 


AN  APPLICATION  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES   2QI 

So  far  as  the  budding  of  the  sexual  instinct  at 
this  period  of  life  is  concerned,  there  is  something 
also  to  be  said.  The  psychological  investigations 
conducted  at  Clark  University  have  made  it  clear 
that  at  the  age  of  puberty  there  is  an  organic 
process  at  work  which  pushes  forth  into  activity  at 
nearly  the  same  time  the  sexual  and  the  spiritual. 
There  is  no  proof,  however,  of  the  causation  of  the 
latter  by  the  former.  But  it  does  appear  to  be 
true  that  the  two  are  so  closely  associated  at  the 
point  in  the  physical  process  where  they  branch 
in  different  directions,  that  at  that  critical  period 
any  radical  excitation  of  the  one  has  its  influence 
upon  the  other.  The  writers  of  religious  hymns 
have  sometimes  unconsciously  taken  advantage  of 
this  fact  of  physical  development  to  arouse  the 
human  love  passion  beside  the  spiritual.  A  few 
years  ago  at  the  greatest  camp-meeting  gathering 
of  young  people  in  America,  where  thousands 
between  fourteen  and  twenty-five  come  together 
for  social  intercourse  and  inspiration,  by  all  odds 
the  most  popular  hymn,  sung  all  along  the  sea- 
shore and  about  the  grounds,  was  the  follow- 
ing :— 

"  Blessed  lily  of  the  valley  —  oh,  how  fair  is  He  f 

He  is  mine,  I  am  His. 
Sweeter  than  the  angels'  music  is  His  voice  to  me, 

He  is  mine,  I  am  His. 

Where  the  lilies  fair  are  blooming  by  the  waters  calm, 
There  He  leads  me  and  upholds  me  by  His  strong  right  arm. 
All  the  air  is  love  around  me  —  I  can  feel  no  harm  — 

He  is  mine,  I  am  His." 


292       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

Now  I  submit  that  with  our  present  knowledge 
of  the  delicate  interrelation  of  the  sexual  and 
spiritual  in  adolescence,  such  hymnology  does  not 
indicate  the  wisest  nurture  of  the  human  soul. 

We  have  had  our  attention  called  to  the  sensual- 
ity which  broke  out  in  the  midst  of  the  great  reli- 
gious excitements  in  Kentucky.  There  are  many 
other  facts  of  observation  indicating  that  the  over- 
stimulation  of  religious  sentiment  among  the  young 
frequently  arouses  the  human  love  passion  much 
more  fiercely  than  the  divine.  It  is  natural  that  it 
should  be  so  from  what  we  know  of  adolescent 
psychology  and  from  what  we  know  of  the  inhibi- 
tive  effect  of  religious  excitement  upon  the  higher 
centres  of  control.  Frederick  W.  Robertson,  in 
one  of  his  essays,  refers  to  this  singular  alliance  of 
the  animal  and  the  spiritual,  which  conducts  the 
"  unconscious  victim  of  feelings  that  appear  divine 
into  a  state  of  life  at  which  the  world  stands 
aghast."  It  is  responsible  for  the  vicious  heresies 
of  free-love  and  "  spiritual "  wifery  and  Mormon- 
ism.  Only  the  ignorant  would  hold  these  phe- 
nomena to  be  to  the  discredit  of  religion.  But 
they  do  teach  us  to  be  on  our  guard  in  religious 
method,  that  we  may  not  adopt  that  form  of  effort 
which  unconsciously  drags  men  down  to  the  level 
of  the  phallic  worshippers  of  the  ethnic  faiths. 

The  steadily  increasing  predominance  of  women 
in  modern  churches  is  coming  to  be  viewed  with 
anxiety,  if  not  with  alarm.  There  are  aspects  of 
the  matter  which  are  in  no  wise  discreditable  to 


AN    APPLICATION    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES       2Q3 

the  sex.  I  launch  no  shaft  of  unworthy  criticism 
at  religious  womankind.  The  most  influential 
makers  of  moral  authority  in  any  state  are 
mothers.  And  many  women  have  shown  them- 
selves capable  of  the  highest  things  in  reason  and 
in  self-control.  But  if  one  may  speak  of  types  of 
mind  and  not  of  individuals,  it  is  within  the  truth 
to  say  that  woman  is  a  creature  of  intuition,  of 
mystical  emotion,  rather  than  of  intellect  and 
rational  inhibition.  Perhaps  sex  enters  into  the 
mental  constitution  as  well  as  the  physical,  and 
this  seeming  differentiation  is  permanent  But  I 
do  not  lean  entirely  to  that  interpretation.  For 
ages  woman  was  the  slave  of  man.  She  had  no 
will  of  her  own,  no  environment  and  no  experi- 
ence that  would  develop  in  her  those  later  mental 
products  of  the  evolutionary  process  which  grew 
to  strength  in  her  lord  and  master.  But  she  is 
gaining  rapidly  in  the  modern  age  what  is  im- 
portant to  perfect  her  characteristic  endowments. 
She  will  never  be  man.  Woman  she  will  always 
be,  and  love  will  be  her  sceptre  and  home  will  be  her 
throne.  But  the  time  will  come  when  she  will  be 
less  impulsively  emotional,  less  highly  suggestible 
than  she  is  now.  And  this  leads  me  to  add  a 
word  with  respect  to  the  relation  of  the  revival 
method  to  the  predominance  of  women  in  the 
churches.  It  has  been  an  important  factor  in  the 
result.  Woman  is  easily  swayed  by  emotion.  Her 
mental  constitution  is  fertile  soil  for  external  sug- 
gestion by  a  speaker  or  by  the  example  of  a 


294      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

friend.  And  it  is  not  at  all  wonderful  that  the 
drawing  of  the  gospel  net  should  reveal  so  fre- 
quently an  excess  of  the  feminine  among  the 
multitude  of  fishes.  I  think  that  this  matter 
has  not  received  the  attention  which  it  deserves 
on  the  part  of  those  who  are  interested  in  the  in- 
crease of  manhood  membership  in  the  churches. 

The  conclusion  seems  to  be  that  the  revival  has 
established  its  own  peculiar  type  of  religious  expe- 
rience and  not  that  which  is  truly  normal  and  uni- 
versal. It  has  not  created  this  type  out  of  nothing, 
for  the  material  is  at  hand  from  which  to  build  it. 
In  every  population  there  are  relatively  large  num- 
bers of  the  "twice  born,"  persons  subject  to 
especially  violent  pulses  of  growth,  in  the  midst 
of  the  shock  of  which  unutterable  things  are 
heard,  indescribable  visions  of  glory  are  seen, 
and  sometimes  strange  motor  phenomena  are 
experienced.  This  condition  is  not  an  ever  pre- 
sent one  with  this  class  of  persons,  but  there  is 
in  them  an  existing  mental  tendency  towards  the 
emotional  life  and  its  primitive  manifestations.  In 
time  of  revival  excitement,  of  course,  this  is  the 
element  which  is  most  characteristic,  which  comes 
at  once  to  the  fore,  and  which  is  established  by 
tradition  as  the  only  perfect  and  sufficient  type. 
Its  weakness  and  its  limitations  are  clear.  It  is  a 
mental  segment  of  humanity.  Its  experiences  are 
simply  impossible  to  thousands  of  genuinely  reli- 
gious persons.  And  it  is  no  cause  for  lament  that 
this  is  so.  It  is  well  for  the  world. 


AN    APPLICATION    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES      2Q5 

The  dramatic  and  instantaneous  and  convulsive 
personal  experience  of  conversion  is  a  single  kind. 
Its  philosophic  basis  is  the  inner  experience  of 
emotion  as  something  incontestably  divine.  And 
it  has  all  the  defects  of  its  philosophy.  Conversion 
in  the  New  Testament  is  a  phenomenon  in  which 
thought  and  will  and  conduct  play  the  chief  part. 
The  essential  meaning  of  ^erdvota  is  a  change  of 
mind  on  reflection.  The  word  which  essentially 
signifies  to  fed  repentance  is  /Aera/ie'Xo/iat,  and  was 
used  of  Judas  when  he  impulsively  cast  the  thirty 
pieces  of  blood  money  on  the  floor  of  the  temple. 
Conversion  itself  is  a  volitional  word. 

The  sudden  and  convulsive  type  of  religious 
conversion  has  never  been  universal.  Certainly 
the  founder  of  Christianity  did  not  foster  it.  His 
method  with  the  disciples  and  the  people  was 
education  and  discussion,  the  reported  incident  of 
the  stampeding  of  the  demon-spirits  and  the  swine 
of  Gadara  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  It 
has  not  especially  characterized  the  Catholic  and 
Episcopalian  and  Lutheran  denominations  of  Chris- 
tians, nor  the  Puritan  churches  either,  save  as  there 
has  been  leakage  into  these  sects  of  alien  principle 
and  practice.  These  churches  have  employed 
more  or  less  effective,  though  sometimes  danger- 
ously formal  and  lifeless,  methods  of  religious 
education  to  the  exclusion  of  the  revival,  taking 
advantage  through  confirmation  and  other  means 
of  the  spiritual  phenomena  of  adolescence. 

And  there  has  always  been  still  another  class  of 


296      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

persons  who  have  never  known  religious  struggle 
and  who  have  never  needed  special  catechetical 
instruction  or  confirmation  of  purpose  at  a  certain 
stage  of  career,  but  have  blossomed  into  maturity 
spiritual  as  naturally  as  into  maturity  mental  or 
physical.  This"  group  comes  from  stock  which  is 
mentally  well  balanced  in  heredity,  and,  more  im- 
portant still,  which  has  maintained  in  the  house- 
hold a  simple  and  rational  family  religion.  This 
was  the  sort  of  home  that  produced  Edward 
Everett  Hale  and  made  it  possible  for  him  to 
pronounce  the  ideal  Christian  testimony :  "  I 
always  knew  God  loved  me,  and  I  was  always 
grateful  to  him  for  the  world  He  placed  me  in.  I 
was  always  glad  to  tell  Him  so  and  was  always 
glad  to  receive  His  suggestions  to  me.  ...  I 
had  no  idea  whatever  what  '  the  problem  of  life ' 
was.  To  live  with  all  my  might  seemed  to  me 
easy ;  to  learn  where  there  was  so  much  to  learn 
seemed  pleasant  and  almost  of  course ;  to  lend  a 
hand,  if  one  had  a  chance,  natural ;  and  if  one  did 
this,  why,  he  enjoyed  life  because  he  could  not 
help  it,  and  without  proving  to  himself  that  he 
ought  to  enjoy  it."  l 

Candid  investigation  will  compel  a  true  bill 
against  the  revival  of  the  past  on  the  evidence  of 
its  having  violated  the  fundamental  principles  of 
education.  Its  normal  tendency  is  not  to  strengthen 
the  intellect  and  the  will,  but  rather  to  submerge 

1  Quoted  in  Starbuck,  "  The  Psychology  of  Religion,"  pp.  305, 
306. 


AN    APPLICATION    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES 

both  under  billows  of  suggestion  and  emotion.  It 
is  a  thing  of  impulse  rather  than  of  reason.  When 
allowed  full  sway  in  a  population,  its  manifesta- 
tions become  primitive  and  ultimately  so  grewsome 
and  grotesque  that  they  can  no  longer  be  associ- 
ated in  the  thought  of  earnest  men  with  soundness 
of  method  or  of  mind.  Whenever  in  the  past,  as 
has  sometimes  happened,  genuine  good  has  been 
done  in  society  through  the  revival,  it  has  been 
directly  in  proportion  to  the  control  which  the 
reflective  processes  of  individual  leaders  have  ex- 
ercised over  what  is  essentially  impulsive  social 
action.  When,  as  in  recent  times,  certain  of  the 
forms  of  revivalism  are  maintained  under  the  name 
of  "missions  "  or  "  retreats  "  or  even  greatly  modi- 
fied "  evangelistic  services,"  while  reason  remains 
dominant  in  mass  and  in  control,  the  essential 
nature  of  the  movement  is  so  changed  that  the 
terms  of  description  applicable  to  the  great  re- 
ligious awakenings  of  the  past  no  longer  suffice. 

We  must  not  be  blind  to  the  utility  of  impulsive 
or  sympathetic  action  in  primitive  times.  This  was 
the  method  that  established  civilization  in  everv 

«* 

part  of  the  world.  In  those  early  days  it  was 
responsible  for  great  harm,  but  for  greater  good. 
Let  us  hope  that  men  are  rapidly  outgrowing  it 
now,  that  it  will  soon  pass  entirely  away  and  that 
we  shall  not  see  its  recrudescence  save  in  the  most 
dire  emergency  of  national  life.  Rational  like- 
mindedness,  the  polity  of  discussion  and  intelligent 
public  judgment,  is  at  the  root  of  social  progress. 


298       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

So  must  the  order  be  with  the  revival  churches 
which  have  wrought  well  for  humanity  through 
the  use  of  a  primitive  method  among  primitive 
populations,  which  otherwise  might  long  have 
waited  for  the  touch  of  the  higher  life.  They 
must  go  on  from  the  emotional  to  the  rational. 
"  Churches  that  fail  to  maintain  their  hold  on  the 
highest  regions  of  human  thought  are  inevitably 
Destined  to  wither  and  die.  No  degree  of  evange- 
listic zeal  can  compensate  for  the  loss  of  intelligent 
and  rational  faith."  l  A  religious  method  more  or 
Iqss  suited  to  early  conditions,  when  sympathetic 
like-mindedness  was,  so  to  speak,  in  a  virgin  state 
in  great  populations,  might  easily  become  a  men- 
ajce  to  a  modern  nation  in  the  modern  age. 
/  Early  in  this  study  I  have  alluded  to  the  decline 
f  revival  over  large  areas  of  the  United  States, 
articularly  in  the  centres  of  population  where 
social  organization  is  highly  perfected,  where  the 
(environment  is  complex,  the  interests  many,  com- 
munication easy  and  education  within  the  reach 
of  all  the  people.  The  accession  of  knowledge, 
the  sense  of  security,  the  measure  of  well  being  — 
which  have  come  with  a  more  highly  specialized 
and  effective  social  organization  in  these  modern 
^industrial  communities  —  have  on  the  whole  trans- 
jformed  beneficently  the  primitive  emotional  nature 
'of  man.2  In  individual  cases  the  reaction  is  too 
violent^  and  prosperity:,  and  enlightenment  beget  the 

^THugJj^Price  Hughfi». 

2t3TGiddings,  "  Inductive  Sociology,"  p.  244  f. 


AN    APPLICATION    TO   THE    UNITED    STATES      2O/) 

lust  of  the  flesh  and  the  pride  of  life.  But  in  the 
main  it  is  not  so.  For  the  mass  of  the  people  the 
new  life  social  is  begetting  a  new  life  mental  and, 
eventually,  let  us  hope,  will  beget  a  new  life  ethical 
and  spiritual.  But  in  nothing  does  the  change  more 
quickly  appear  than  in  the  growth  of  calm  and  dis- 
ciplined habits  in  religion.  Any  attempt  to  main- 
tain the  extravagantly  emotional  methods  of  other 
days  breaks  down  utterly  and  inevitably  in  the 
midst  of  city  life. 

But  it  would  be  much  too  wide  a  generalization 
to  maintain  that  this  condition  is  true  of  the  entire 
nation.  It  is  not.  There  are  many  lines  of  evi- 
dence which  converge  in  proof  that  we  are  still 
an  emotional  people.  We  are  an  empire,  with 
varying  measures  of  economic  and  social  develop- 
ment in  the  different  parts.  We  are  civilized  and 
barbarous  at  the  same  time.  We  have  millions  of 
primitive  black  men  and  more  millions  of  primitive 
white  men,  both  native  and  foreign  born.  We 
have  Kentucky  and  Kansas  and  Colorado,  and 
then  we  have  Massachusetts.  But  not  to  speak 
of  the  contradictions  of  localities,  there  are  not 
wanting  indications,  that  the  mental  mode  of  our 
entire  population  is  still  emotional.  The  churches 
in  which  feeling,  belief  and  authority  are  dominant 
have  by  far  the  largest  membership.  The  "solid 
South  "  as  well  as  certain  "  solid  "  portions  of  the 
North  bear  eloquent  testimony  to  the  reign  of 
prejudice  instead  of  independent  thought  in  poli- 
tics. The  feuds  in  the  Southern  mountains,  the 


3OO      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

lynchings  of  black  men  and  white  on  both  sides  of 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  the  mob  spirit  in  industry, 
attest  the  rule  of  impulsive  social  action  over  great 
numbers  of  men. 

In  what  civilized  country  do  evidences  of  re- 
ligious fanaticism  more  abound  ?  Modern  spirit- 
ualism had  its  rise  here,  and  nowhere  has  it  spread 
with  so  consuming  a  flame.  The  minds  of  unnum- 
bered thousands  were  overwhelmed  by  the  fantastic 
arguments  and  vain  imaginings  of  the  Vermont 
farmer,  William  Miller.  And  in  our  time  the  tide 
is  still  rising.  The  Mormons  have  fastened  them- 
selves upon  great  stretches  of  our  western  country 
and  upon  great  numbers  of  simple,  primitive  peo- 
ple with  the  grip  of  "  revelation "  and  authority. 
The  commercial  and  the  hypnotic  have  swallowed 
up  the  rational  with  the  multitude  of  followers  of 
the  "  prophet  "  Dowie.  And  I  have  by  no  means 
exhausted  the  record  of  monomania  and  credulity. 
It  is  partly  due,  I  know,  to  the  extraordinary  free- 
dom to  think  and  freedom  to  print  and  freedom  to 
act  in  America  upon  the  most  false  and  chimerical 
hypotheses  if  they  are  only  advanced  in  the  name 
of  religion.  And  for  this  there  is  no  remedy  in  so 
out-and-out  a  democracy.  The  excess  of  liberty 
has  its  advantages  in  the  end.  But  such  evidence 
would,  not  abound  if  there  did  not  exist  in  our 
population  a  great  volume  of  unrestrained  imagina- 
tion and  emotion  which  are  always  the  predispos- 
ing causes  of  fanaticism.1 

1  For  an  informing  discussion  of  this  subject,  cf.  Century  Maga- 
zine, December,  1903,  "  Fanaticism  in  the  United  States,"  Buckley, 


AN    APPLICATION    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES       30! 

And  what  of  the  political  errors  of  our  democ- 
racy ?  They  are  not  so  many  or  so  vital  as  Lecky 
thought.  But  there  are  enough  of  them  to  give 
us  pause  and  impel  us  to  a  study  of  the  cause. 
The  craze  for  cheap  money  and  for  wild-cat  bank- 
ing, the  struggle  of  frenzied  feeling  between  debtor 
and  creditor  which  lies  at  the  base  of  our  rather 
humiliating  financial  history,  the  antislavery  move- 
ment in  its  leading  phase,  and  that  sad  burst  of 
sentimentality  which  clothed  the  recently  emanci- 
pated freedman  with  the  political  powers  of  a  de- 
veloped Anglo-Saxon  freeman,  are  all  instances  of 
the  acceptance  of  the  leadership  of  emotion  on  the 
part  of  a  nation.  Though  God  maketh  the  wrath 
of  man  to  praise  Him,  though  there  was  disclosed 
on  both  sides  in  the  Civil  War  a  wealth  of  spiritual 
sacrifice  and  of  mental  and  material  resource  which 
have  demonstrated  for  all  time  that  we  are  one 
people  and  a  great  people,  nevertheless  these  are 
no  justification  for  bloodshed  and  passion  and 
sectional  strife.  The  path  of  reason,  too,  leadeth 
onward  and  upward,  but  never  through  such  wilder- 
ness of  woe. 

And  the  bearing  of  this  upon  religious  method  ? 
Take  Kentucky  for  an  illustration.  No  state  of 
the  Union  is  more  notoriously  subject  to  waves  of 
impulsive  action  in  politics  and  also  in  the  admin- 
istration of  justice  and  the  practice  of  religion. 
Extravagant  and  exciting  revivals  have  vied  with 
neighborhood  feuds  and  community  lynchings  to 
satisfy  a  primitive  lust  for  emotion.  And  there 


3<D2       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

is  some  reason  to  believe  that  it  would  not  be 
difficult  to  establish  a  correlation  between  the  reli- 
gious fury  of  this  population  and  its  judicial  and 
political  fury.  I  offer  the  following  only  as  a  bit 
of  evidence  to  light  the  way  of  future  research  in 
this  field.  The  attention  of  the  reader  is  called  to 
the  accompanying  map  of  the  state  of  Kentucky 
by  counties.  The  dots  represent  the  number  of 
lynchings  in  each  county  from  1882  to  1903,  a 
period  of  twenty-two  years. 

The  bunching  of  instances  in  the  counties  of 
Logan,  Simpson  and  Todd  will  not  escape  the  eye. 
The  detailed  figures  are  as  follows  : l  — 

1882-1903 

Total  number  of  black  men  lynched  in  the  state 

of  Kentucky     .......  95 

Total  number  of  white  men  lynched  in  the  state  . 

of  Kentucky 61 

In  all 156 

In  the  county  of  Logan,  10  blacks  and  4  whites,  .  14  in  all. 

In  the  county  of  Simpson,  3  blacks  and  3  whites,  6  in  all. 

In  the  county  of  Todd,  3  blacks  and  3  whites,      .  6  in  all. 

Total 26 

The  population  of  Kentucky  by  the  census  of 
1900  was  upwards  of  two  millions.  The  popula- 
tion of  the  three  contiguous  counties  —  Logan, 
Simpson  and  Todd  —  was  upwards  of  fifty  thou- 
sand. That  is,  in  a  region  containing  only  one- 
fortieth  of  the  population  of  the  state  and  not 

1  These  are  taken  from  an  exhaustive  study  of  lynchings  made 
by  Dr.  J.  Elbert  Cutler  of  Yale  University. 


304      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

much  more  than  one-fortieth  of  the  area,  one-sixth 
of  all  the  cases  of  lynching  are  to  be  found.  And 
Logan  County,  with  one-eightieth  of  the  popula- 
tion, is  to  be  credited  with  one-eleventh  of  the 
lynchings. 

And  what  is  the  history  of  this  Logan,  Simpson 
and  Todd  locality  ?  This  was  the  chief  battle 
ground  and  the  area  of  propagation  of  the  famous 
Kentucky  revivals  of  1800,  the  record  of  which 
we  have  already  considered  in  these  pages.  Dur- 
ing the  entire  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century 
this  region  was  the  home  of  bloody  feuds,  and  dur- 
ing the  latter  half  of  the  same  century  it  was  the 
great  centre  of  the  lynching  spirit  in  Kentucky. 
This  is  but  a  single  piece  of  evidence,  and  we  may 
have  here  simply  a  coincidence.  But  it  certainly 
is  a  striking  one.  If  we  are  not  yet  able  to  assume 
that  one  of  the  causes  of  the  impulsive  excitability 
of  this  population  is  to  be  found  in  its  extravagant 
religious  methods,  we  are  at  least  able  to  affirm 
that  exciting  revivals  are  characteristic  here,  as 
elsewhere,  of  low  areas  of  mental  development. 

It  is  well  known  that  lynching  in  the  South  is 
carried  on  largely  by  the  ignorant  and  baser  ele- 
ments of  the  white  population.  It  is  also  well 
known  that  the  chief  method  of  religious  influence 
and  training  of  the  black  man  and  the  ignorant 
white  man  alike  is  impulsive  and  emotional  revival- 
ism. It  is  a  highly  dangerous  situation,  and  de- 
serves the  earnest  consideration  of  the  ecclesiastical 
statesmen  of  all  denominations  which  work  in  the 


AN  APPLICATION  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES   305 

South.  It  will  be  impossible  to  protect  that  part 
of  the  nation  or  any  other  from  the  epidemic  mad- 
ness of  the  lynching  mob,  if  the  seeds  of  it  are 
sown  in  the  sacred  soil  of  religion.  The  last  thing 
that  the  superstitious  and  impulsive  negro  race 
needs  is  a  stirring  of  the  emotions.  That  is  easy 
and  meaningless.  What  they  need  is  a  strict  re- 
ligious discipline  that  will  keep  their  passions  in 
check  and  build  them  up  in  chastity,  industry  and 
integrity.  The  whites  in  the  feud  belt  are  not 
suffering  from  an  absence  of  religion,  but  from 
the  wrong  kind.  Their  preachers  are  great  "  soul 
savers,"  but  they  lack  the  practical  sense  to  build 
up  their  emotionalized  converts  into  anything  that 
approaches  a  higher  life. 

There  is  no  problem  which  confronts  the  people 
of  the  United  States  into  the  solution  of  which  a 
right  religious  education  does  not  enter  as  an  im-  * 
portant  factor.  The  great  mass  of  wage-earners  , 
in  this  country  need  a  form  of  spiritual  training  , 
which  shall  help  to  develop  in  them  a  better  poise 
of  mind  than  they  now  possess.  The  cause  of 
labor  is  invariably  set  back  when  its  programme  is 
carried  out  by  hasty  and  impulsive  action.  Now 
and  then  a  strategic  strike  is  a  powerful  influence 
in  the  direction  of  better  wages,  a  better  organi- 
zation and  remedial  legislation.  But  its  success 
invariably  follows  upon  rational  methods,  upon 
passion  kept  in  control.  The  economic  as  well 
as  the  moral  and  religious  future  of  the  wage-earn- 
ing classes  depends  upon  their  capacity  for  de- 


306      PRIMITIVE   TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

liberation.  For  ill-advised  and  emotional  action 
they  have  capacity  in  plenty. 

The  field  of  religious  evangelism  is  suddenly 
widening  among  the  primitive  populations  of  our 
dependencies.  The  Cubans  are  still  the  quasi- 
wards  of  the  nation,  and  the  Philippines  are  bound 
to  us  by  stronger  ties.  The  missionary  to  these 
people  will  be  sure  to  find  that  proneness  to  ex- 
citability, to  hasty  and  ill-considered  action,  is 
one  of  their  most  characteristic  traits.  And  he 
will  do  well  to  modify  any  traditional  religious 
method  with  this  fact  in  mind.  It  should  not 
weigh  too  heavily  upon  his  spirit,  however,  if  tre- 
mendous outbursts  of  emotion  do  now  and  then 
follow  upon  his  careful  preaching  of  the  word  of 
life  among  the  child  races  of  the  earth.  When  they 
first  break  away  from  that  comparatively  low  stage 
of  mental  and  moral  evolution  at  which  their  prog- 
ress has  so  long  been  arrested,  it  would  be  a  mar- 
vel of  method  as  well  as  of  grace  if  they  could  at 
once  master  the  deepest  instincts  and  habits  of 
their  primitive  natures. 

The  vice  of  religious,  political  and  industrial 
democracy  is  emotionalism  in  the  wide  sense  of 
that  term.  I  do  not  mean  that  we  can  have  too 
much  of  the  right  kind  of  emotion.  Sentiment 
which  is  deep  and  true  and  held  in  leash  of  the 
reason  is  as  valuable  an  asset  for  a  nation  as  for 
an  individual.  But  there  is  no  virtue  which  a  free 
people  needs  so  much  as  rational  self-restraint.  The 
sheet  anchor  of  permanent  liberty  in  a  democracy 


AN    APPLICATION    TO    THE    UNITED    STATES       307 

is  moderation  of  mind.  It  is  in  this  mental  atmos- 
phere that  the  Christian  spirit  of  brotherhood  will 
best  flourish.  And  the  church  most  powerfully 
contributes  to  the  realization  of  the  ideal  of  its 
Master,  which  strives  to  be  a  real  centre  of  social  • 
control.  In  the  main  it  has  been  that  in  the  past, 
and  well  deserves  the  gratitude  of  every  lover  of 
his  country.  But  the  work  of  restraint  in  the 
nation  is  by  no  means  accomplished.  The  sublim- 
inal consciousness  of  primitive  man  still  slumbers 
in  our  population. 

"  The  jungle  is  wide  and  the  cub  he  is  small, 
Let  him  think  and  be  still." 


CHAPTER   XV 

THE   NEW   EVANGELISM 

THE  Germans  have  a  maxim  which  recites  the  im- 
propriety of  emptying  the  child  out  with  the  bath. 
Is  conversion  out  of  date  as  well  as  the  old-time 
revival  ?  In  this  critical  study  of  a  religious  method 
I  have  taken  the  reality  of  the  conversion  experi- 
ence for  granted.  Investigations  in  religious  psy- 
chology, so  far  as  they  have  gone,  have  established 
it  as  firmly  as  have  the  observations  and  deduc- 
tions of  theology.  I  suppose  that  no  scientific  man 
now  doubts  that  conversion  is  a  normal  human 
experience  with  at  least  very  large  numbers  of 
persons  in  every  population. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  religious 
impulse  unfolds  as  naturally  in  the  life  of  the  child 
as  the  social  impulse,  and  that  careful  nurture  will 
usually  show  fruitage  in  spiritual  decision  and 
church  membership  at  an  early  stage  of  adoles- 
cence. Although  there  may  be  pulses  of  growth 
even  in  the  young,  on  the  whole  this  form  of  con- 
version is  a  gradual  process  which  manifests  itself, 
not  in  crises,  but  in  the  normal  evolution  of  char- 
acter. When  the  hidden  element  of  faith  in  a 
Heavenly  Father  and  devotion  to  righteousness  in 
308 


THE    NEW    EVANGELISM  309 

personal  and  social  relation  rises  to  sovereignty, 
we  call  it  conversion.  It  is  the  budding  of  the 
higher  life  of  the  human  soul. 

There  is  no  longer  scepticism  on  this  point.  But 
sudden,  dramatic,  climacteric,  convulsive  changes 
of  character  in  later  life  under  the  influence  of 
religion  still  occasion  some  controversy.  There  is 
as  little  cause  for  it  here.  Every  human  being, 
young  or  old,  is  an  exceedingly  composite  product. 
There  are  multitudes  of  human  minds  which  never 
pass  through  normal  growth,  religious  or  other. 
They  issue  into  physical  maturity  only  half  trained, 
mentally  or  spiritually.  They  are  a  bundle  of  un- 
unified  and  conflicting  tendencies  still,  some  good 
and  some  evil.  Instinct  and  impulse  at  one  end  of 
the  scale  and  aspiration  and  ideal  at  the  other,  or 
the  power  of  forming  such  ideal  or  aspiration,  have 
long  lain  dormant  in  their  spirits.  And  there  is 
not  the  slightest  reason  to  doubt  that  it  often  hap- 
pens in  the  lifetime  of  such  men  that  some  new 
influence  brings  sudden  glad  release  to  these  sup- 
pressed elements  of  character,  and  arouses  them 
into  such  activity  that  the  individual's  whole  con- 
duct from  that  time  on  is  transformed. 

This  is  the  type  of  religious  experience  which 
appears  so  frequently  in  revivals.  There  has  been 
in  the  past  a  tendency  to  think  of  it  as  involving 
more  of  the  supernatural  than  is  contained  in  the 
gradual  process  of  divine  unfolding  through  reli- 
gious education.  It  is  a  theological  question,  and  I 
will  not  raise  it  further  than  to  suggest  that  Jerry 


3IO       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

McCauley  once  made  a  profound  remark  to  a 
friend  of  mine  when  he  said,  "  Far  be  it  from  me 
to  limit  the  grace  of  God,  but  I  never  yet  knew  a 
man  to  be  permanently  reclaimed  who  did  not  have 
a  good  mother."  This  unique  evangelist,  who  ran 
to  "such  good  purpose  the  "  spiritual  rough-house  " 
for  lost  men,  had  exceptional  opportunities  for  the 
study  of  human  nature,  and  he  has  left  a  valuable 
bit  of  testimony.  The  power  to  become  the  sons 
of  God  has  indeed  been  implanted  in  men  by  other 
than  human  hands.  To  one  man,  the  immediately 
miraculous  only  is  supernatural.  To  another,  the 
divine  immanence  is  natural  or  supernatural  ac- 
cording as  you  view  it.  And  if  He  be  imma- 
nent in  heredity,  which  is  the  essence  of  Jerry 
McCauley's  philosophy,  why  not  a  silent  partner 
in  that  whole  complex  influence  which  awakened 
the  man  in  the  critical  hour?  And  as  to  the  rela- 
tive supernaturalness  of  sudden  and  gradual  con- 
version, if  God  be  in  the  thunder,  why  not  equally 
in  the  still  small  voice  ? 

The  only  question  with  respect  to  remarkable  con- 
versions of  the  revival  type  is  as  to  the  number  of 
them  that  naturally  occur  in  a  population.  Induc- 
tions of  this  variety  of  religious  experience  have 
not  yet  covered  a  sufficiently  wide  range.  The 
statistics  are  either  selective  or  only  indicative. 
Students  and  soldiers  and  saints  have  furnished 
much  of  the  material,  and  we  have  not  yet  estab- 
lished a  true  average  experience.  And  so  perhaps 
one  man's  guess  is  as  good  as  another's.  And  it  is 


THE    NEW    EVANGELISM  311 

mine  that  the  number  of  cases  of  sudden  and  star- 
tling conversion  which  would  normally  occur  in  a 
population  is  greatly  exaggerated. 

I  do  not  deny  that  there  are  many  instances  in 
which  the  volcanic  burst  through  the  crust  of  habit 
and  of  the  old,  imperfect  life,  is  the  only  way  out 
into  newness  of  character.  I  do  not  deny  that 
humble  conviction  of  a  lost  and  helpless  state  must 
precede  a  spiritual  resurrection  with  some  persons. 
I  do  not  deny  that  there  is  a  great  volume  of  imper- 
fectly suppressed  imagination  and  emotion  in  every 
population  which  easily  finds  vent  in  unusual  sen- 
sory and  motor  phenomena  under  certain  circum- 
stances, though  normally  there  is  inhibition  enough 
to  control  them.  But  the  circumstance  which  has 
enormously  added  to  the  number  of  cases  which 
would  naturally  appear  is  the  revival  method.  It 
is  very  easy  to  "  experience  a  doctrine,"  and  there 
has  been  much  of  that,  as  Professor  Coe  has  ex- 
plained, in  the  matter  of  awful  conviction  of  sin. 
But  it  is  easier  still  to  experience  an  experience. 
For  many  people  it  is  only  a  step  in  a  crowd  from 
control  of  emotion  to  loss  of  inhibition  and  to  imi- 
tation half-unconscious.  And  anything  which  is 
traditionally  held  to  be  unusually  mysterious  or 
divine  is  copied  with  alacrity  in  a  revival  assembly. 
That  exquisite  spiritual  analyst,  Jonathan  Edwards, 
long  ago  called  our  attention  to  this  in  the 
"Treatise  concerning  the  Religious  Affections." 
"A  rule  received  and  established  by  common  con- 
sent has  a  very  great,  though  to  many  persons  an 


312       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

insensible,  influence  in  forming  their  notions  of  the 
process  of  their  own  experience.  I  know  very 
well  how  they  proceed  as  to  this  matter,  for  I  have 
had  frequent  opportunities  of  observing  their  con- 
duct. Very  often  their  experience  at  first  appears 
like  a  confused  chaos,  but  then  those  parts  are 
selected  w/iick  bear  the  nearest  resemblance  to  suck 
particular  steps  as  are  insisted  on  [the  italics  are 
not  Edwards'] ;  and  these  are  dwelt  upon  in  their 
thoughts,  and  spoken  of  from  time  to  time  until 
they  grow  more  and  more  conspicuous  in  their 
view,  and  other  parts  which  are  neglected  grow 
more  and  more  obscure.  Thus  what  they  have 
experienced  is  insensibly  strained,  so  as  to  bring 
it  to  an  exact  conformity  to  the  scheme  already 
established  in  their  minds.  And  it  becomes  natural 
also  for  ministers,  who  have  to  deal  with  those  who 
insist  upon  distinctness  and  clearness  of  method, 
to  do  so,  too"  J 

It  is  no  more  difficult  to  establish  a  religious 
type  by  selection  than  any  other  kind.  And  that 
this  has  actually  occurred  in  the  multitude  of  com- 
monplace cases  which  make  up  the  vast  majority, 
I  have  no  manner  of  doubt.  And  we  may  look, 
I  think,  for  a  great  decrease  of  these  special  and 
startling  experiences  with  the  more  careful  training 
of  children  in  religion,  with  the  slowly  strengthen- 
ing mental  quality  of  the  average  man,  and  with  the 
progressive  decline  in  the  old-time  revival.  The 

1  Cf.  also  William  James,  "  Varieties  of  Religious  Experience," 

p.  200. 


THE    NEW    EVANGELISM  313 

new  evangelism  will  not  concern  itself  with  the 
reproduction  of  by-going,  if  not  by-gone,  types  in 
method  and  experience.  It  will  be  thoroughly 
interested  in  the  relatively  small  number  of  gen- 
uinely sudden  and  startling  metamorphoses  of 
character  which  are  not  artificially  induced  by  the 
revival.  But  it  will  not  model  itself  completely 
in  accordance  with  them. 

The  great  crises  of  awakening  in  America  in  the 
eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  have  lent  aid 
and  comfort  to  a  human  proneness  towards  inter- 
mittency  of  spiritual  interest.  They  have  accent- 
uated the  seemingly  rhythmical  transition  of 
populations  from  the  tropical  to  the  glacial  in 
the  religious  life.  The  tendency  of  the  method 
has  been  to  suppress  the  rational  and  the  self- 
controlled  in  men.  And  there  is  a  consequent 
reshaping  of  evangelistic  ideals. 

The  days  of  the  emotional  stampeding  of  a  town 
are  passing  away  in  religion  just  as  they  are  in 
politics.  As  the  voting  population  grows  more 
rational,  the  campaign  attitude  and  manner  of 
appeal  of  the  political  parties  is  undergoing  a 
change.  Torchlight  processions  and  the  oratory 
of  the  "  spellbinder  "  are  giving  way  to  a  sober 
consideration  of  candidates  and  principles  through 
the  medium  of  newspaper  discussion  and  clever 
and  illuminating  advertisement  in  unusual  forms. 
There  is  also  an  immense  amount  of  careful  per- 
sonal work  done  with  new  voters,  man  to  man, 
face  to  face,  eye  to  eye.  Great  audiences  can 


314      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

still  be  brought  together  to  listen  to  exceptional 
men  whose  reputation  for  knowledge  and  clear 
thinking  is  well  known,  but  "  spread-eagle  "  emo- 
tional appeal  is  rapidly  losing  its  power  over  men 
in  the  more  intelligent  sections  of  America.  Out- 
ward political  enthusiasm  is  not  so  great,  but  actual 
political  thinking  and  public  judgment  were  never 
so  strong. 

Even  in  politics  great  meetings  will  still  have  a 
value  in  a  refined  and  rationalized  form.  And  I 
am  not  therefore  deaf  to  the  logic  of  this  book 
when  I  express  the  belief  that  in  religion  likewise 
men  will  never  in  this  world  forsake  the  assem- 
bling of  themselves  together.  Even  in  heaven, 
where  there  is  no  temple,  we  read  that  they  still 
unite  in  choral  song  to  Moses  and  the  Lamb.  As 
long  as  the  social  instinct  lasts,  so  long  will  men 
seek  one  another's  company  in  public  gathering 
for  the  mere  joy  of  it,  not  to  speak  of  the  utility  of 
it.  The  crowd  is  natively  a  primitive  thing.  But 
there  is  no  reason  why  it  may  not  be  moulded  into 
a  more  rational  instrument  of  helpfulness  and  in- 
spiration. And  in  this  form  it  will  still  serve  reli- 
gion. The  emotion  of  the  crowd  will  give  the  grip 
of  reality  to  spiritual  teaching.  It  will  arouse  them 
that  are  at  ease  in  Zion.  It  will  melt  the  ice  of 
indifference  and  leaven  the  soul  life  of  multitudes 
yet  unborn.  But  the  crowd  will  no  longer  be 
employed  to  lay  bare  the  primitive  in  man.  There 
will  be,  I  believe,  far  less  use  of  the  revival  meeting 
as  a  crass,  coercive  instrument  for  overriding  the 


THE    NEW    EVANGELISM  315 

will  and  overwhelming  the  reason  of  the  individual 
man.  The  influence  of  public  religious  gatherings 
will  be  more  indirect,  more  unobtrusive.  It  will  be 
recognized  that  hypnotization  and  forced  choices 
weaken  the  soul,  and  there  will  be  no  attempt  to 
press  to  decision  in  so  great  a  matter  under  the 
spell  of  excitement  and  contagion  and  suggestion. 

It  will  become  increasingly  clear  that  crude,  crowd 
coercion  is  a  cowardly  as  well  as  a  destructive 
agency  for  pressing  men  into  the  kingdom.  The 
way  of  courage  and  of  helpfulness  is  the  way  of 
tactful  personal  approach  of  man  to  man.  Noble 
individual  character  will  become  more  and  more 
the  supreme  power  of  suggestion  and  of  attraction 
in  religion.  The  revival  is  founded  upon  the  edu- 
cational fallacy  that  there  is  one  right  method  for 
the  mental  and  spiritual  development  of  all  men, 
whereas  every  pupil  in  church  or  common  school 
is  a  new  problem  in  salvation.  No  two  lives  need 
the  same  touch  or  the  same  moulding.  One  by 
one,  each  must  be  led  out  into  his  own  life  spiritual. 
We  are  beginning  to  appreciate  how  great  is  the 
practical  skill  and  wisdom  in  suggestion  required 
of  him  whom  we  sometimes  erroneously  call  the 
secular  teacher.  We  must  set  our  standards  as 
high  for  the  leaders  and  workers  in  religion. 

The  new  evangelism  places  the  emphasis  upon 
the  native  religious  impulse  of  children  and  youth. 
Its  guiding  light  is  the  psychological  insight  of 
Jesus,  "  Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto 
me  and  forbid  them  not,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom 


3l6      PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

of  heaven."  Jonathan  Edwards  said  that  if  chil- 
dren are  not  born  again,  they  are  no  better  than 
young  vipers. 

"  Conceived  in  sin,  O  wretched  state, 
Before  we  draw  our  breath, 
The  first  young  pulse  begins  to  beat 
Iniquity  and  death." 

The  Christian  Nurture  of  Horace  Bushnell  harked 
back  to  Christ  with  its  proposition  "  that  the  child 
is  to  grow  up  a  Christian  and  never  know  himself 
as  being  otherwise."  He  is  born  from  above  when 
he  is  first  born  into  the  world  if  we  have  eyes 
to  see  it  and  skill  to  lead  the  way  in  the  divine  un- 
folding. He  is  a  tangle  of  the  animal  and  the 
spiritual,  and  the  struggle  for  possession  begins  no 
man  knows  how  early. 

The   most  important  phase  of  mental  develop- 
ment in  a  child  is  the  growth  of  the  sense  of  per- 
sonal fellowship  with  a  world  of  beings  other  than 
nmself  and  outside  of  himself.     The  progressive 
accommodation  of  his  own  little  spirit  to  other  spirits 
ike  himself  is  the  essence  of  character  building. 
The  motive  that  impels  him  to  the  development  of 
he  social  impulse  which  leads  to  the  growth   of 
character  is  the  need  of  sympathy  and  help  for 
he  better  ordering  of  his  life.     Now  the  religious 
mpulse  is  only  a  differentiation  of  the  social  im- 
pulse, and  the  religious  motive  is  a  differentiation 
of  the  social  motive.     Conversion  is  the  climax  of 
he  "unselfmg"  process.    The  time  comes  when  it  is 
seen  that  visible  help  must  sooner  or  later  fail,  and 


THE    NEW    EVANGELISM  317 

human  sympathy  will  not  suffice.  The  need  of  a 
divine  power  is  felt  in  the  soul,  and  lo,  the  God- 
consciousness  is  awake.  This  development  cannot 
be,  should  not  be,  hastened  unduly,  but  no  man 
may  say  how  early  it  will  appear  under  the  simple, 
rational  nurture  of  an  intelligent  Christian  home. 
A  sound  family  religion  furnishes  the  only  suffi- 
cient basis  for  healthy  evangelism.  And  next  after 
this  we  shall  strive  to  bring  the  content  of  religious 
instruction  in  church  and  Bible  school  up  to  the 
psychological  and  pedagogical  ideas  of  our  time. 
We  shall  gather  the  children  between  the  ages  of 
ten  and  fourteen  into  classes,  under  the  most  per- 
fect leadership  that  the  churches  can  command  — 
wise  and  noble  men  and  women  who  are  able  to 
teach  boys  and  girls  that  they  are  born  for  the 
higher  life  of  religion  and  the  church  just  as  they 
are  born  for  the  higher  life  of  politics  and  the 
state ;  that  enrolment  for  citizenship  in  the  spirit- 
ual kingdom  of  the  invisible  Father  is  as  natural 
and  sensible  as  enrolment  in  the  voting  popula- 
tion of  .the  nation. 

Such  a  training  as  this,  which  follows  nature's 
time  and  plan,  will  probably  require  no  cataclysm, 
no  upheaval,  no  crisis,  no  mechanical  revival  em- 
phasis, no  yearning  after  experiences  that  are  nor- 
mal enough  to  a  few  people  of  mature  life  but  not 
to  the  vast  majority,  either  adults  or  children. 
There  will  be  no  fixed  "  age  of  discretion,"  though 
we  shall,  no  doubt,  make  special  endeavor  to  estab- 
lish right  choices  through  church  membership  at 


3l8       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

that  period  of  rather  swift  maturing  of  social  sym- 
pathy which  occurs  with  boys  and  girls  in  early 
adolescence.1  This  is  exceedingly  important  in 
order  to  give  the  plastic  mind  of  youth  a  "  set " 
towards  lifetime  habits  of  religion.  And  it  will  be 
well  if  this  can  be  accomplished  before  the  emo- 
tional tide  of  adolescence  swells  to  its  flood.  The 
best  sort  of  a  Christian  life  is  the  product  of  the 
gradual  dawning  of  a  sweet  and  trustful  God-con- 
sciousness upon  the  maturing  mind  and  heart  of 
a  human  being.  "  The  child  who  is  early  taught 
that  he  is  God's  child,  that  he  may  live  and  move 
and  have  his  being  in  God,  and  that  he  has,  there- 
fore, infinite  strength  at  hand  for  the  conquering 
of  any  difficulty,  will  take  life  more  easily,  and 
probably  will  make  more  of  it,  than  one  who  is 
told  that  he  is  born  the  child  of  wrath  and  wholly 
incapable  of  good."  2  From  the  conception  of  a 
kingdom  of  heaven  which  suffereth  violence  while 
the  violent  take  it  by  force,  we  are  passing  on  to  the 
formula  of  evolution  physical,  mental,  spiritual, — 
first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full  corn  in 
the  ear. 

The  ideal  way  is  the  path  of  Christian  nurture  and 
not  of  revival  rupture.  But  we  must  not  gaze  so  de- 
votedly at  the  perfectly  ideal  as  to  miss  the  plainly 

1  Cf.  Coe,  "  Education  in  Religion  and  Morals,"  a  book  of  unusual 
practical  helpfulness  on  this  whole  subject  of  the  ethical  and  spiritual 
training  of  childhood  and  youth. 

2  Edward  Everett  Hale,  a  part  of  quotation  cited  in  previous 
chapter. 


THE    NEW    EVANGELISM  319 

practical.  There  is  no  good  reason  why  an  assem- 
bly of  young  people,  who  are  no  longer  children, 
may  not  be  so  reasonably  and  judiciously  directed 
and  controlled  upon  the  day  which  the  church  may 
set  apart  for  the  public  sealing  of  self-conscious- 
ness in  religion,  that  the  mere  inspiration  of  num- 
bers added  to  the  earnest  and  rational  advice  of  a 
godly  pastor  may  not  furnish  the  last  touch  of 
emotion  which  shall  determine  conduct  and  char- 
acter. 

And  what  of  that  great  multitude,  who  for  gen- 
erations to  come,  because  of  unwise  parenthood  or 
imperfect  methods  or  sheer  wilfulness  or  some 
other  cause,  will  continue  to  pass  out  of  the  home 
and  out  of  the  church  of  childhood  and  youth  into 
adult  maturity  without  God  and  without  hope  and 
perhaps  without  love  to  man  ?  Are  the  days  of 
"  crowd  "  evangelism  altogether  done  ?  I  do  not 
so  believe.  But  the  emphasis  of  preaching  and 
the  manner  of  winning  men  to  a  more  normal  and 
rational  life  will  undergo  modification.  The  new 
evangelism  will  speak  less  of  the  soul's  depravity 
and  more  of  its  infinite  worth.  There  are  a  few 
instinctive  criminals  in  society  whose  heredity  and 
environment  have  left  them  very  little  of  the  image 
of  God.  But  we  shall  not  allow  their  existence  to 
determine  the  content  of  religious  doctrine.  Preach- 
ing will  declare  a  sincere  respect  for  human  per- 
sonality, not  as  something  dead  in  trespasses  and 
sins,  but  as  "  a  distinct  expression  of  the  thought 
of  God."  The  new  evangelism  will  therefore 


32O       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

honor  the  moral  initiative  of  men,  not  seeking  to 
entrap  it  or  override  it  or  coerce  it  or  engulf  it. 
This  profound  esteem  for  the  volition  of  another 
has  frequently  been  wanting  in  the  revivals  of  the 
past.  "  A  man  may  be  ever  so  gross  and  vulgar, 
but  when  you  come  to  deal  with  the  deepest  that 
is  in  him  he  becomes  sensitive  and  feminine. 
Brusqueness  and  an  implied  familiarity  may  do 
very  well  when  dealing  with  his  brains,  but  with- 
out tenderness  and  courtesy  you  can  only  approach 
his  heart  to  shock  it.  ...  To  know  and  remem- 
ber the  surpassing  dignity  of  the,  human  soul  — 
for  its  own  sake,  for  its  God-like  elements,  for  its 
immortality,  above  all  for  His  sake  who  made  it 
and  gave  Himself  for  it  —  this  is  the  first  axiom 
to_be  remembered."  1 

A  supreme  effort  will  be  exerted  to  make  men 
in  this  age  tJiink  rather  than  feel,  to  think  of  the 
utter  abnormality  and  folly  as  well  as  the  wicked- 
ness of  violating  the  divine  order  through  sinning. 
Thus  the  source  from  which  flows  the  emotional 
impulse  towards  newness  of  life  will  be  deepened 
and  widened.  Salvation  will  no  longer  seem  to  be 
a  means  of  escape  from  the  sharks  of  perdition, 
but  rather  will  appear  to  be  the  natural  fulfilment 
of^a- worthy  life. 

The  new  evangelism  will  proclaim  the  modern 
and  not  the  mediaeval  view  of  the  character  of  the 
Heavenly  Father.  It  will  interpret  Him  to  men 
not  as  a  God  who  was  alienated  from  a  guilty  race 

1  Drummond,  "The  New  Evangelism,"  pp.  280,  281. 


THE    NEW    EVANGELISM  321 

until  the  blood  of  the  cross  disposed  him  once 
again  to  favor,  but  as  a  God  who  was  verily  in 
Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  Himself,  reveal- 
ing thereby  a  Father's  mighty,  suffering  love  that 
will  not  by  any  means  let  the  sinner  go  until  at 
last  it  draw  him  upward  and  homeward.  Thus 
shall  we  have  restored  to  us  a  strong  sense  of  the 
reality  of  a  personal  God  in  the  world,  for  the 
practical  loss  of  which  in  a  multitude  of  minds  a 
false  theology  and  an  imperfect  science  of  imper- 
sonal force  and  impersonal  law  have  been  co- 
responsible. 

The  earnest  preaching  of  great  truths  in  their 
modern  light,  a  straightforward  appeal  to  the  in- 
tellect and  conscience  of  men,  liberalism  attuned 
to  faith  and  spiritual  service,  a  passionate  devotion 
to  the  highest  ethical  ideals,  a  social  rather  than 
an  individualistic  church  that  shall  truly  set  men 
on  work  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  —  this  is  the 
programme  of  the  new  evangelism.  The  converts 
may  be  few.  They  may  be  many.  They  will  be 
measured,  not  by  the  capacity  of  the  preacher  for 
administrative  hypnotism,  but  rather  by  the  capac- 
ity for  unselfish  friendship  of  every  Christian  man 
and  woman.  For  the  influence  upon  the  world  of 
growing  men  in  our  time  is  to  be  more  and  more 
the  indefinable  and  the  unobtrusive  influence  of 
personal  character.  Here  lies  the  crux  of  the 
question  for  modern  evangelism. 

There  is  need  in  the  American  population  for 
such  a  message  and  for  such  spiritual  endeavor. 


322       PRIMITIVE    TRAITS    IN    RELIGIOUS    REVIVALS 

For  though  there  be  no  radical  national  decline 
in  morals  or  religion,  yet  there  is  a  consider- 
able measure  of  popular  indifference  to  the 
church  and  an  unwholesome  lack  among  mul- 
titudes of  men  of  a  genuinely  living  faith  in 
the  Invisible  and  Eternal.  And  righteousness 
is  by  no  means  firmly  set  upon  the  throne  of 
our  industrial  splendor.  Surely  there  is  nothing 
which  will  sooner  put  to  shame  the  sordid  materi- 
alism of  an  intensely  active  and  commercialistic 
nation  than  the  fearless  and  intelligent  proclama- 
tion and  practice  of  the  principles  which  controlled 
the  human  life  of  Christ.  It  is  inconceivable  that 
the  righteousness  and  love  of  God,  revealed  in  the 
character  and  activities  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  have 
lost  their  power  of  individual  and  social  regenera- 
tion. 

There  are  not  lacking  signs  in  England  and 
America,  as  well  as  in  other  countries  of  the  world, 
that  the  so-called  age  of  scepticism  is  warming 
towards  an  age  of  faith.  The  gentle  heat  has 
touched  already  some  mature  men  of  science  and 
many  young  men  in  the  colleges  and  universities. 
The  transformation  is  at  once  intellectual  and 
spiritual.  There  are  those  also  who  interpret  cer- 
tain contemporary  sounds  of  a  going  in  the  tops 
of  the  mulberry  trees  as  presaging  the  return  of 
great  numbers  to  faith.  Whether  they  be  true 
prophets  or  no,  certainly  they  have  a  vision  of  the 
goal  of  an  aggressive  and  rational  evangelism  — 
the  spiritual  vivification  of  the  multitude. 


THE    NEW    EVANGELISM  323 

But  of  this  I  think  we  may  be  confident.  The 
days  of  religious  effervescence  and  passional  unre- 
straint are  dying.  The  days  of  intelligent,  unde- 
monstrative and  self-sacrificing  piety  are  dawning. 
To  do  justly,  to  love  mercy,  to  walk  humbly  with 
God,  —  these  remain  the  cardinal  tests  of  the 
divine  life  in  man. 

"  And  every  virtue  we  possess  and  every  conquest  won, 
And  every  thought  of  holiness  is  His  alone." 

Religious  experience  is  an  evolution.  We  go  on 
from  the  rudimentary  and  the  primitive  to  the 
rational  and  the  spiritual.  And,  believe  Paul,  the 
mature  fruit  of  the  Spirit  is  not  the  subliminal  up- 
rush,  the  ecstatic  inflow  of  emotion,  the  rhapsody, 
the  lapse  of  inhibition,  but  rational  love,  joy,  peace, 
long-suffering,  kindness,  goodness,  faithfulness, 
meekness  —  self -control.1 

1  tyKpdreia,  strength  within,  self-mastery. 


THE   END 


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